The Gamer Girl
by ThePhantomScribe
Summary: After a freak accident during the Breach, Blake finds herself facing the impossible: her semblance has been altered into something calling itself The Gamer. With levels, quests and bosses to master, she has little recourse but to enlist the aid of the school's resident gaming expert, Jaune Arc. Will Blake be able to take on fearsome odds and the mantle of The Gamer Girl?
1. A Rude Awakening

**_A Rude Awakening_**

* * *

Things looked bleak.

Surrounded by Ursae, Beowolves and a large King Taijitu, team RWBY was trapped in the center of the town pavilion with more Grimm pouring in from the derelict Mountain Glenn tunnel by the second. As Yang would've put it... there was literally _no brakes _between fighting enemies today, being that they'd just crashed through several subterranean chambers on a hell-bent bomb train.

"We're really getting no _brakes_ today, aren't we," Yang mumbled beside Blake, causing the adrenaline-filled catgirl beside her to raise a brow.

"And somehow I just knew you would say something like that," Blake replied flatly, "Yang, if those are the last words you ever say, I-"

_RAWWWR!_

And interrupted by the battle roar of the massive reptilian Grimm, the melee began. The winded crimsonette leader found herself facing the giant Grimm itself, her teammates running to her aid. Her sister being the first and fastest to close the gap, of course, Yang took the aerial approach only to be slammed out of the sky by three Nevermores which kept her busy. Blake and Weiss, however, were unfortunately held back on ground level by a massive pack of Beowolves that placed themselves between them.

"We must work our way around the pack where their numbers dwindle!" Weiss exclaimed as she slashed three offending Grimm with a crystalline blade conjured up by her ice glyphs, "We won't be able to reach Ruby on time otherwise!"

"On it!"

Blake nodded with her acknowledgment before running another Beowulf through the chest with Gambol Shroud, its dark misty life force pouring out from the crack in its bony armor as she pulled out and made her way to the side of the pavilion.

Things couldn't end this way. Blake had finally found a team she truly appreciated in a home she valued for both its ideals and virtue and wouldn't let herself lose the friends she loved to these soulless creatures of darkness. Every slash, every strike and every stab the agile cat-Faunus delivered mercilessly and with the deadly precision that only an experienced fighter with years of combat training under her belt could muster as she kept her red-hooded target in sight.

_CRASH!_

Breaking through a wall behind her of a seemingly high-end clothing store, another Beowolf ambushed Blake who barely had the chance to turn and shadow-vault away as the beast decapitated her hollow copy.

"Use the Dust rounds I gave you!" Weiss managed to yell from several yards away before she could be heard nor seen no more through the growing horde of gaunty killer creatures between them.

"Right, of _course!_" the tired raven-haired girl half mumbled, half chided herself for being too fatigued to recall the valuable weapon her teammate had presented her before boarding the train.

And arming her rounds embedded in the hilt of Gambol Shroud, Blake began to open fire on the Beowulves around her, every bullet flaming, cackling and hissing with energy as they tore through the abysmal hides of the savage monsters around her before activating her slew of elemental shadow clones to add to her repertoire of attacks.

_POW! _A fire clone she left to be devoured by a dozen beasts exploded in their faces.

_sssKRT! _An ice clone she generated left several Beowolves with trapped limbs, their efforts to escape impossibly futile against their promptly delivered fate of thorough dismemberment.

_ZZzzzRAK! _A lightning clone held its form for merely a second before vaporizing an entire section of the horde at the first contact made by one of the hungry beasts.

Panting along the side of the pavilion as she tried to catch her breath and dozens more Beowolves frantically tried to locate their evasive prey, Blake checked the distance between her and her leader from behind a barely-standing unhinged doorway.

She had to admit, Weiss' plan had gone quite well - the young and reckless Beowulves confused enough between who to choose that by the time they chose who to attack, they fell as easy prey to the young Huntresses-in-training. One more reason to respect the reformed heiress who had come such a long way from the beginning of the school year. Sure, she still had some rough edges, but every diamond starts out that way.

Another brief glance to ensure her icy comrade was faring well against the Grimm was made before Blake stepped out and prepared her final sprint to Ruby's aid.

"Less than half of where we started," the catgirl exhaled in her attempt to summon the adrenaline needed to continue, "That's good. Now to-"

_SLASH!_

"_Aargh!_"

Roaring pain immediately shot up through through her arm as an Alpha Beowolf had finally made its appearance, having stalked its prey and shoved its younger counterparts aside to stealthily deliver a piercing slash that connected with the unsuspecting girl's forearm.

Her aura had deflected enough of the blow that would've otherwise taken her limb clean off, if not worse, but as Blake shadow-vaulted herself out of the Alpha's reach and glanced down at her bloodied arm, her eyes widened at the damage the heartless monster had caused her weapon.

"Gambol! No!"

The Alpha's claw had not only managed to slice through the girl's arm, but had torn open a hole in Gambol Shroud's chambered hilt which was held in her injured hand. And along the trail of blood that was now pouring down her quickly-healing arm was now shining trails of every form of Dust that Weiss had given her, the mixture seeping in quickly before the exposed raw Dust within the weapon began to turn volatile as another pack of Beoloves rapidly approached with the Alpha at the fore.

She did the only thing she could: toss the quickly overheating blade at the approaching pack and shield herself from the inevitable.

_BOOOM!_

"Aaaaah!"

_Crash!_

And going through a wall of glass into another shop with the force of the explosion, Blake was thrown back through shelf after shelf of merchandise before landing forcefully against the back wall. Slumping down on the floor, Blake awoke after a few hazy moments in and out of consciousness before surveying her situation.

The explosion had unleashed a powerful force wind that had thrown everything far back in a cloud of crystalline and literal dust, and she could tell the Beowolves wouldn't dare come back anytime soon. Taking the opportunity to look over herself, Blake was surprised to see no bones were broken and her arms and legs shedding stray forks of electricity over the objects surrounding her from the Dust that had doubtlessly coated her in the explosion. Except...

"Wha? What's going on?"

Examining her numerous scratches and wounds more closely, she then noticed that instead of her usual maroon-ish aura tending to her injuries, there was a brighter pale blue energy quickly sealing the cuts on her midsection and legs right before her eyes. The look of awe quickly turned into a deadpan, however, as she finally noticed what store she had landed _in_.

"A gaming shack? Wow," she began as she slowly stood up with a grunt and looked down at the plentiful cartridges and disc boxes of the countless video games that had cushioned her fall, "The boys would certainly get a kick out of this."

And clambering out of the ruins that was once a GameStop, Blake looked out and couldn't hold back a grin at the familiar voices above her.

"_Nobody move!_ Junior detectives!"

"We have badges so you know it's official!"

And glancing back at the battlefield, Blake sighed in relief as she noticed Ruby had just been saved by Nora who had caved in the King Taijitu's head with a mighty _Nora Smash_ \- as she had just called out before doing the deed - and the Atlesian cavalry coming to the rescue along with the rest of team JNPR and the Beacon staff.

And was also pretty sure she saw Coco kick the Beowulf that had crashed through the clothing store in the groin.

"Hey Blake, I noticed you dropped your weapon. Seems like it really took a beating," Sun now approached her with the blade of Gambol Shroud in hand before looking up at her and her clothing's current tattered state with a rapidly growing blush, "A-And uh... _wow_. You seriously need to reconsider your wardrobe to avoid any more malfunctions in the future."

Glancing down at herself and noticing that large parts of her stockings were torn off and that her scarf and vest were nowhere to be found, Blake quickly snatched her weapon and crossed her arms in front of herself tightly to cover up the holes in the only covering over her torso she had left with a slight darkening of her own cheeks.

"Ehehhh... riiight."

"A-At least you're okay."

"Alriiight!~ All the Grimm are dead now!~" Neptune called out from behind Sun before taking a better look at the catgirl and widening his eyes at her surprisingly scanty attire, "Well, _that's_ something you don't see everyday."

At that, Blake's momentary shock quickly wore off into her signature peevish snarky mood, though muted a bit by her still present awareness over her precarious situation.

Still, she furrowed her brows as her half-undone bow flattened on top of her head, "Uh, guys... would you please quit... _gawking_ at me!?"

She tried to immediately shadow-vault herself away from the situation, but she staggered back as her jump which should've launched her several dozen feet in the air where the guys couldn't follow was just... a normal jump.

"Uhh... you okay, Blake?"

Writing off the lack of her semblance's activation as an aftereffect of the near-death experience and her intense embarrassment, Blake merely cast the boys her signature withering glare before giving her flat command.

"Just get me back to my team. And some clothes."

A few minutes of stumbling around, awkward furtive glances and a wardrobe change later, and Blake was reunited with her team on an overlook of the city near Beacon in long purple basketball shorts and a black hoodie.

"For the hundredth time, I am _so_ sorry," Weiss apologized once more, her usually pristine complexion creased with worry.

"For the hundredth time, it wasn't your fault," Blake assured with a warm smile, "It couldn't be helped."

"And at least Gambol wasn't _too_ damaged by the reaction," Ruby mused aloud from her position, her trained eye running over the slightly warped weapon in her hands, "Nothing that can't be fixed at the school forge once we get back!"

And handing back the weapon to her raven-haired partner, Ruby and her team fell into a momentary silence as they looked over the city that was tinged gold with the setting sun's rays until Yang spoke up with a groggy voice.

"Well, we did it."

"We did it," Blake echoed with a relaxed sigh.

Weiss rummaged through her things, commenting idly as a light breeze ran through the group's location,"If we don't get extra credit for that, I'm gonna be seriously disappointed."

"Weiss, a two-headed snake literally crushed a bakery," Yang replied while deadpanning at her teammate, "I wouldn't count on it."

"Plus, I mean, we didn't solve everything. A lot of people were hurt, and we still don't even know why they did this, or who that mystery girl was," Ruby added meekly as well.

Blake nodded in acknowledgment but replied simply, "We might not have all the answers, but we do have a lot of dangerous people behind bars. And I think that's something we could be proud of."

"Yeah!" Ruby quipped in response, her usual cheer coming back at Blake's observation, "And if anyone tries something like this again, we'll be there to stop them."

Yang yawned while raising a half-spirited fist in the air, "Yay, teamwork, camaraderie, good guys, go team, alright, good job..."

She then turned to Blake, however, looking over her partner as she recalled the terrible and rather compromising state that the Faunus-girl had emerged from the pavilion. Yet despite the fairly degenerated condition of her combat gear and the dried blood she was sure she'd seen on them, the blonde brawler noted that Blake didn't seem any worse for wear, just a little tired at most.

"Heh, shorts and a hoodie? You can tell that guys picked out the outfit," Yang commented with a tired chuckle - earning a similar one from her partner - before gaining a more solemn tone, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'd say so," the ravennette replied nonchalantly, leaning back on both arms and casting the brawler an idle smirk, "My aura's feeling a bit off, though; nothing some rest shouldn't be able to take care of."

Weiss, who was currently eavesdropping as politely as possible, drawled aloud to fish for the team's next move, "So then..."

"Uhh... Time for bed?" Ruby suggested unsurely.

"Please."

"Absolutely."

"Yes."

And with the final word before the team got back to campus, Yang half-sighed and half-declared, "I'm going to sleep forever."

Not that Blake would argue, she certainly felt like she could do the same. Of course, she didn't expect how quickly she fell asleep, hoodie and all, as soon as her head hit the pillow, but that'd be only one more thing in this roller-coaster of a day that'd be written off with a good night's rest.

And things would finally go back to normal.

* * *

_Wap_.

"Blake."

_Wap_.

"Blake."

_Wap_.

"Blake."

"..."

_Wap_.

The faunus girl tightly wrapped herself in her blanket and buried her head under her pillow with an annoyed grunt as yet another pillow landed on her.

"How... do you even have that many pillows!?" she mumbled from underneath her full-body plushy fortress.

"Eh? I couldn't hear that Blakey~" Yang continued as she readied another cottony projectile from her bunk above.

"Don't you overheat at night or something with all those pillows?" Blake hedged from her position, lifting her head from under her pillow just enough to level a burning glare from a single eye at the brawler in hopes of stopping her in her tracks. But Yang _is_ fire, as if a burning glare would work...

"Pfft, who says these are mine?" she replied teasingly, completely ignoring the stare that could turn a lesser person to stone, "I stole these from Weiss!"

Blake broke her futile glare to cast a glance at the icy heiress on the bed across her, unfortunately shivering in her sleep with the lack of pillowy insulation while Ruby remained in deep slumber above.

"Well _that_ was rude."

"Meh, anyway. I need you to help me with something, you mind?"

**_PING!_**

"What in the-!?" Blake yelped at herself as the sudden foreign sound caused her to jump from her bed and land on the floor upright - as cats normally do.

"There we go! Now that's the spirit!~" Yang called from the top of their bunk with a wide grin, putting the pillow she was holding at the ready down at her side from where she lay.

"Did... Did you just hear that?" A now wide-awake Blake asked the brawler, who merely cocked her head to the side at her partner's unusual behavior.

Blake was many things, and several of those things weren't the best in the world. But she was pretty sure paranoid schizophrenic wasn't one of them.

"Uh, no," Yang replied flatly, "But yesterday left me a bit sore and I left the aromatherapy cream stuff in the bathroom... could you please be the bestest partner ever aaand _get_ that for me?~"

And then it happened.

_Whoosh._

**[A Quest Has Been Created.]**

"Gah!" Blake yelped, jumping back as a pale blue window suddenly popped up in front of her.

"Aaand, she's hissing again," Yang drawled as the feline faunus began doing just that at something Yang couldn't see.

'What on Monty's Remnant _is_ this!?' Blake couldn't help thinking as a small _continue_ arrow began blinking on the bottom right of the window.

But with little other recourse after rubbing her eyes, blinking a few times, and willing the hallucination to go away to no avail, Blake hesitantly tapped on the arrow.

**[Quest Alert]**

**The Gamer's partner wants muscle relaxing ointment to use for her soreness.  
****Bring her the ointment she wants quickly! Time limit: 1 minute.**

**Completion award: Exp 500.  
****Peace and quiet.**

**Completion failure: Partner's nagging.  
****Pillow to the face.**

**_Accept?_ YES - NO**

'Well _this_... is rather outlandish...'

"Uhh, Blakey? You okay? You're going cross-eyed," Yang commented from her bunk, now trying to analyze her partner's increasingly strange demeanor.

"I... uh... I'm fine," the very confused catgirl replied, blinking at the window a final time before slowly turning her head up to her partner and giving her the most reassuring smirk she could muster at the moment, "I'll uh, go get you that ointment..."

And unable to turn without the window reappearing in front of her again, Blake huffed and tapped on the _YES_ option in midair.

"I really don't see myself getting used to this."

Making her way over to the bathroom, unwittingly stomping as she tended to do when deep in thought, Blake entered the large white-tiled room and found the ointment in question, picking it up in her hand.

**_PING!_**

"...You have _got_ to be kidding me."

Sure enough, another pale blue window materialized out of thin air.

**[You have obtained the quest item _Ointment_.]**

'I don't need a notification _every_ time,' the increasingly irked girl thought to herself as she tapped the little _X_ on the top right corner of the window, casting it away back into nonexistence, 'What is even _happening_ to me?'

And in a final twist of the knife of fate and irony, Blake looked up and quite audibly gasped at what she saw in the mirror.

**|The Gamer|  
****LV11 Blake Belladonna**

"Wha-What is on my _head!?_" Blake squeaked uncharacteristically, eyes wide at the words floating above her bow. She waved her hand through them with no discernible resistance, the words merely hanging there like a neon sign, "A-A level? The Gamer... what does that even _mean!?_"

Slowly but surely, a harrowing hypothesis began to form in her mind as she looked down at her flawless creamy white legs and pulled up the sleeves of her hoodie to see her perfectly healed arms.

"Okay Belladonna, easy now," Blake mumbled to herself as she closed her eyes and focused her aura in an exercise she had performed countless times, "Easy as can be..."

And leaning back to tipping point, Blake focused on creating a shadow clone with her semblance to catch her and push her back upright only to meet the floor on her backside with a resounding _thud_.

"Ow."

"Oh Blaaa-ake!~"

Blake's ears twitched at the sound of her partner's voice through the bathroom doors, her quest - er, _favor_ \- coming back to mind.

"Coming!"

The cat-eared girl rushed into the room, handing the brawler her requested item.

**_PING!_**

Yang couldn't help hearing the sudden groan from her partner as she took the ointment from her.

**[Gained 500 Experience.]**

**_PING!_**

**[Your level went up by 1.]**

"Alright Blake, what's going on," Yang demanded, now concerned for her partner's state of mind, "You've been acting all strange, you look like you're reading an invisible book, and I'm pretty sure I've seen you poking the air a couple times already."

Blake could only gape at her inquisitive companion.

"...Don't tell me, and I wake Weiss and tell her you stole her pillows during your little episode. And she's a _much_ better interrogator than I am."

The catgirl quickly went through her options. Who in this room could possibly understand her situation? That somehow, someway, the Shadow semblance she had come to learn and love had been replaced with this, this _abomination_ of a semblance, leaving her as nothing more than some kind of-

"_Video game character..._"

"What was that?" Yang questioned expectantly, all measure of her teasing attitude long gone, "I didn't quite catch that."

Blake's revelation hung over her as heavily as her lower jaw, her mouth making a small _O_ as she tried to rationalize what had just happened to her.

Ruby could possibly be someone who'd understand something like this, but Blake shook her head lightly, reminding herself that their leader was more of a weapons junkie than a gamer. Weiss wasn't even worth mentioning, as the ravenette was quite certain that the heiress had never picked up a gaming controller her entire life. That left Yang, her admittedly vain but caring partner who'd surely do her best to understand Blake's plight. But could she really be an asset in this kind of field?

Blake made her decision. She'd have to go to the nearest gaming connoisseur she knew and get a handle on her abilities before anyone could notice and/or freak out about it. And knowing Yang, she'd _definitely_ freak out.

"I uh, really haven't been feeling well. I think I hit my head yesterday in the store I crashed into."

_The gaming store._

So much more was coming together in Blake's head the more she thought about it.

"Really? Because you look perfectly fine. No bumps on you or anything," Yang quipped with a lead-weight tone to her voice.

"Really, my head's been swimming ever since I woke up and I feel like I've been really disoriented. Maybe I should take a walk or something?" Blake winced at the betrayal by her own voice in making the last part sound more like an unsure question.

"Hmm," Yang seemed to roll over Blake's defense in her mind before continuing with a softer tone, "You definitely _have_ been acting weird... I guess you should do whatever you need to do if it helps you feel better. Ruby and Weiss are down for the count; they won't be waking up soon. And neither will _I_ after getting a coat of this good stuff all over me~"

Yang cheerfully uncapped the ointment and began the leisurely application process as Blake nodded and turned to leave the room. But before she could exit, Yang called back after her a final time.

"And Blake?"

"Yes, Yang?"

The amber-eyed girl turned back to see a hint of worry still present in Yang's lilac ones.

"If you need anything, we're here... 'kay?"

Blake grinned for the first time in what felt like ages.

"Thank you, Yang. I'll let you know."

* * *

Blake felt pretty good that she hadn't had to lie to her partner's face in the room. She _was_ extremely confused and disoriented and was truly hoping that maybe this was all due to a powerful blow to the head. Possibly some medically unexplained injury to an aura that would heal in time just like any other bodily lesion. And she did need a walk as well.

Just, not a very long walk.

_Knock Knock._

Blake sighed as she waited in front of the door across the hall, looking down and silently chiding herself for having forgotten to change into her usual attire before having come here. But judging by the footsteps approaching the door from its other side, it was already too late to bail.

The door opened halfway, revealing a somewhat groggy blue-eyed blonde who after rubbing his eyes nearly fell back upon identifying his visitor.

"Uhh... hi!"

"Hi," Blake began, pretty sure that this was the first time the two had even exchanged words directly since the beginning of the year, "Do you... have a moment, Jaune?"

He nervously looked at Blake, glanced back into his shaded dorm, and turned back to her before letting out a half-hearted chuckle and sheepishly scratching the back of his head.

"Is everything... alright?" Blake continued slowly, her brows furrowing at what could have the JNPR leader acting like this.

No way.

Did he and Pyrrha finally-

"Um, yeah. It's just that I'm the only one here right now."

Blake's brow now rose at his statement in one of her many wordless remarks that were common in her vast vocabulary of body language, sighing with a reassuring smile before continuing, "It's fine, it shouldn't take too long."

"Oh. Okay then, come right in," he replied with a grin and as gentlemanly a gesture he could emulate in his admittedly childish onesie.

"Thank you," she replied as she stepped into the well-kept room, "Where did everyone go, if I may ask?"

"Oh, Pyrrha left to the forge to repair some damage her shield had gotten during yesterday's fighting and Ren went with Nora to early-morning breakfast. You know how she gets with Pancake Saturdays."

Blake needed no reminder to recall the current state of the kid who Nora had accused of stealing the pancakes she had absent-mindedly devoured without even realizing.

His poor, poor legs.

"Right."

Taking advantage of the brief moment of silence that followed, Blake began to look through the JNPR dorm as Jaune took a seat on his bed and Blake politely did the same on Ren's bed across from his. It was not unlike RWBY's dorm, except a little bigger. After all, they were able to fit all four beds with their things, two beds on each side of the room. A wise decision to separate the genders as much as possible, Blake noted, and the divide could be noticed by the abrupt transition of makeup desks and pink things with hearts on them on one side of the room to the lack thereof of any decoration other than an _X-Ray and Vav_ poster on he other end of the room.

This of course had to be the work of the blonde sitting right in front of her. Come to think of it, Blake had never really thought much about the student. Though his style didn't really show it, he must've been comletent enough as a fighter to make it into Beacon. At the very least, he seemed to be improving. Judging by the increased muscle mass that was discernible even beneath the onesie - something she hadn't recalled seeing the first night they all slept in the same atrium in the school - he had made _marked_ improvement...

**_PING!_**

**[A skill has been created through a special act.]**

'Wha-?'

**_PING!_**

**[Through continuous observation, a skill to find the target's information, _Observe_, has been created.]**

"Observe?" Blake mumbled to herself. What kind of a skill was _that!?_

"Uh, Blake? You okay?"

People really needed to stop asking her that.

"Yes Jaune," she replied flatly before focusing on him again, "I'm fi-"

She froze as she noticed familiar writing now floating above his head.

**|Arc Knight|  
****LV6 Jaune Arc**

'Level six?' she thought to herself, her momentary shock fading away surprisingly fast, 'That doesn't seem too impressive. Does that mean I'm twice as strong as he is?'

"Um, okay," Jaune continued as he cocked his head to the side, noticing his unusual visitor staring at something behind or above him, "You said you needed a moment to talk?"

"Oh. Right," Blake replied as she snapped back into the moment, "I'm curious about your... _gaming_ expertise."

If Blake had any qualms about breaching a topic as mundane as this with a young man she'd hardly ever seen, much less _spoken_ to, it wasn't showing anymore. She had heard about his Smash Bros tournaments with Sun and Neptune, and his family even had that popular game named after them: _Arc Knights of the Old Republic._ It was a perfectly logical decision.

But... shouldn't she have been at least a little more nervous about it?

"Oh! Wow!" Jaune exclaimed with a light-hearted laugh, "For once in my life, I can actually say that _you_ Blake, have come to the right place! What do you need to know?"

Blake pursed her lips to the side in thought, trying to figure out the best way to word her situation without revealing too much.

"Well... I'd say their general goal, really. How to progress and improve, for one."

"Hmm, well that really depends on the kind of game you're playing," Jaune mused aloud before suddenly narrowing his eyes at the ravenette, "Wait. Since when are you into video games? ...I always thought you were more of the 'mysterious book reader' type."

Blake quickly shot back the best reply she could, "It has recently become... an area of particular interest in my case."

She watched his brow twitch, the minute movements in face and body to determine whether or not he'd believe her... or at least help her.

**_PING!_**

'Grr... What _now?_'

**[_Observe_'s level has risen by 1.]**

'You're kidding me.'

Yet somehow, she now felt she was able to ascertain Jaune's comfort level with her reply much more precisely than before.

"Mm okay. What kind of game you interested in?"

"I'm not exactly certain what category it'd fall under..."

Jaune leaned back a bit, rolling a few options in his mind before snapping his fingers with a grin.

"Not a problem! Describe it to me."

Blake pondered her response once again, going over everything she had discovered about her new ability... this, _Gamer_ semblance.

"For starters, it's all about levels... everyone has one, and one can level up by completing things called _Quests_ of some sort."

"Okay," the white knight mused, nodding his head slowly as he processed her words, "Levels and quests, eh? Who's the main character?"

"Me," Blake remarked too quickly to catch herself, Jaune's brow going up in question before she hastily tried a save, "As in... I... _play_ as the main character. Called _The Gamer?_"

"I see... never heard of that game," Jaune concluded simply, earning a deadpan from his visitor which prompted him to quickly continue, "_Buuut_, it sounds like you're interested in a good old-fashioned RPG there!"

"What's an RPG?"

"You don't know?"

"Not in the slightest."

Jaune's jaw hung low as if she had just grown a second head.

"Yes, Jaune?"

"U-Uh, nothing! I just... haven't really met someone who didn't have any idea what a role-playing game was!" he defended with a laugh.

Blake, not being one to very much like being the most ignorant in a room about any certain topic, leveled the chuckling knight with her potent stare.

"Enlighten me."

He gulped before finding the strength within his male teenage body to continue, "R-Right. In an RPG, you play as a main character devoted to a certain cause or goal met through defeating bosses and leveling up. Usually there are skills and buffs involved, and can be pretty intricate depending on the game. Have a multiplayer RPG, and you may have tons of functions that you can explore!"

"Okay," Blake replied coolly, "So how does one go about leveling up quickly?"

"Well there's usually a point system to track your progress, mostly known as Experience-"

"Or _EXP_," Blake finished for him.

"Right!" he replied with a triumphant grin, "You got it! Once you have enough EXP, you level up and can usually even improve your stats!"

"Improve my stats?" Blake echoed blankly, a whole world of possibilities suddenly flowing through her mind.

"That's right. Usually a group of abilities that spans every area of potential of any given character and lets him or her fight bigger and stronger bosses."

It seemed simple enough of a concept, but could there _actually_ be a way that she could level up her natural attributes with something as menial as a tap of her finger? It didn't seem plausible; but then again, she wouldn't have deemed floating notifications and titles above people's heads as _plausible_ a few days ago either. Were there limits to these attributes? How far did these levels go? What skills could Jaune be talking about?

And like a blooming flame, curiosity sprung up within her, the need to understand outweighing all else in her current predicament. If her world had turned into a game in the span of a single night, then Blake was going to do everything in her power to win it.

But it all involved divulging her new secret right here and now, however... a decision that she swiftly made without any discomfort, much to her surprise.

"Jaune, I'd like you to know that your pointers have proven extremely insightful," she began warmly with a small smile, to which the knight responded in kind.

"Aw thanks! I'm glad I was able to help even a little bit."

"Which is why I must confess that I haven't exactly been forthright with you for the past few minutes..."

"Huh?" he asked with a confused expression.

"The main character in this 'Role-Playing Game' you've had me describe is me."

"Yeah. You said that already."

"No, you misunderstand. The main character is _me_. _I'm_ The Gamer."

A brief pause.

"I don't follow."

Blake facepalmed at his denseness, something that she decided right then and there she'd have to work on with him if they were going to make any further progress with her new semblance.

"Yesterday. At the pavilion, I was exposed to large quantities of varying forms of Dust in an explosion that sent me careening into a GameStop. The unknown mixture bonded with my surroundings, and I believe direct infusion occurred between the Dust, the tech and myself..."

Jaune's jaw began to drop ever so slightly in awe as Blake concluded.

"...in effect, altering my very semblance."

Jaune blinked.

"Oh."

"..."

"_OHHH_..."

"You understand now?" Blake asked calmly, unable to hold back a small smirk at his affable revelation.

"So what you're saying is... your whole life... has pretty much turned into a video game?"

"In short, yes."

"And your new semblance from this freak accident has... somehow _given_ you the ability... to increase your stats by means of some RPG-based level system?"

"Precisely."

Jaune sat there for a moment, still as a stone, before slowly raising his hand and doing the _mind blown_ gesture.

"_Pffffff!_"

It was unexpected, but Blake had just taken a liking to Jaune's easy-going conversationalism... once you got past the awkward and dense bits. Between the drama that usually erupted in her team and the heated discussions she had grown up with in the White Fang, Blake actually felt calm with talking to someone for the first time since ditching Beacon with Sun. Of course, that had been under a moment of duress and he had provided a release from her tension.

But she felt no such stress at the moment, and actually let herself indulge her heightened mood with a rare fully-blown smile at Jaune's antics.

"You know," Jaune began after he was sure he'd wrapped his head around the grevity of the situation, "You're taking this a _lot_ better than most people would if they were in your position."

"I know," Blake admitted softly, now frowning a bit at the strange truth of his statement, "You'd think that losing the semblance I was born with and that had come to define me in a way would be more jarring..."

Settling down again on his bed, Jaune remained silent, listening to Blake's words as she continued.

"I mean, I wasn't exactly proud of what my semblance could do; leaving copies of myself behind to take the hit while I ran, but it was _me_. Everything about myself could be tied to my semblance in one way or another, and to lose it all to this strange ability I know nothing about... it's..."

"_Surreal_," Jaune finished somberly.

Blake couldn't help but notice the dejection in his voice as he said that, "Yes. Exactly."

"I know that feeling," he continued quietly, "Ever since I came to this academy, I've never felt more insecure, afraid, or out of my element. But, you know, here I am..." he finished with as light-hearted a tone and shrug as he could muster, but Blake wasn't one to be fooled so easily.

"Jaune, don't say that. You've made it into this academy, the merit of which is enough on its own to your potential as a future Hunter," she replied with a reassuring smile as she got up and did something she seldom did unless absolutely necessary: taking a seat next to Jaune and placing her hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

But still, he merely chuckled weakly and replied, "Heh, I'm not sure that merit really _counts_ in my case."

Despite the strange implication, Blake decided to push on, adopting an almost challenging tone in her attempt at playing the 'helping hand' role, "Oh really? Well you've managed to stay in Beacon and improve as much as you have... isn't _that_ merit worth mentioning?"

Seemingly caught off-guard by the new reasoning, Jaune sat back as Blake let her hand fall and finally nodded enthusiastically, "You know what? I've never really thought of it that way before!"

"Then?" Blake asked rhetorically with a triumphant smile as a new sense of euphoria from helping someone in need coursed through her, "There you go."

"But still, I'm not sure even _my_ situation would compare to having my semblance changed on me... not that it has manifested yet. Much less to handle it as well as you have."

She let out a snort at his accurately simplified way of summing up her situation, "If you say so, then I suppose not."

"But actually," Jaune suddenly remarked, dropping back in thought as he held a hand to his chin, "Actually... I think maybe your state of mind may be linked to a skill your semblance has given you! Um, have you tried looking at a list of your current skills?"

"I can do that?" Blake replied with some surprise.

"Yeah! Just think about it - every game has a menu, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Then all you have to do is bring it up!" the knight declared conclusively.

Blake merely stared at him, "I think you're over-simplifying things now, Jaune."

"No no, think about it," he continued, raising his hands placatingly to get her to hear him out, "Even if your semblance makes you a video game character, you haven't had to walk around with a gaming controller in your hands all morning, right?"

She leaned back a bit and thought over his reasoning. It was true, she had never had to use more than her finger to interact with the strange windows that had begun to appear. But all she had received were sporadic notifications and alerts, nothing like a menu that Jaune described.

"Then, how can I look at such a menu for myself when I've no controllers to access it?"

Jaune seemed stumped at the question, milling through his options until he started slowly speaking up, "Maybe... it's, voice activated? Stand up and try saying _Main Menu._"

Blake did just so, straightening out her hoodie and taking small steps to center herself between the two beds in front of Jaune before she cleared her throat.

"_Main Menu._"

A brief moment passed before Jaune raised a brow and asked, "Anything?"

"No. Nothing..."

"Um, try _Info_."

"_Info_."

"..."

"..."

"Nothing."

"Um, _Pause?_"

Blake sighed dejectedly as she glanced at her gaming mentor, "I don't think we're getting anywhere with this, Jaune."

But not being one to give up so easily, the Arc snapped his fingers with a final idea, "I got one, try _Status Window!_"

"Status Windo-_oh!?_" Blake faltered as her question turned into an exclamation with the sudden appearance of a pale blue window in front of her face.

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv12**

**...**

**HP: 500/500  
****MP: 300/300**

**...**

**STR: - 8 +**

**VIT: - 9 +**

**DEX: - 19 +**

**INT: - 13 +**

**WIS: - 7 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 40  
****Money: 300 Lien**

* * *

"Well, _this_ is informative," Blake mumbled as she finished examining the window which pretty much summed up her life's combat training in a few square inches of space.

"What do you see?" Jaune asked with growing excitement.

Blake cocked her head at the blonde leader's question, "You mean you can't see it?"

"Nope."

'That definitely explains things,' the girl thought to herself, taking a final glance to the window before turning to face Jaune.

"I don't see any skills here."

"Maybe it's voice activated too," Jaune reasoned with a shrug, "Try _Skill List._"

"Skill List."

_**DING!**_

**[Skill List]**

**A Gamer's Mind**

**A Gamer's Body**

**Observe**

**Sword Mastery**

**Dual Wielding**

"Some of these make sense," Blake mentioned idly as she scanned the short list, "and I've seen one activated already. But there are a couple I've never seen before."

"Try tapping on them," he suggested.

Once she did so, another window popped up with its own _ding_.

**[A Gamer's Mind (Passive) Lv MAX]**

**Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Allows peaceful state of mind. Immunity to psychological status effects.**

"Interesting," the intrigued faunus girl remarked before exiting the window and clicking the next option.

**[A Gamer's Body (Passive) Lv MAX]**

**Grants a body that allows for the user to live the real world like a game.**

The moment she saw the two options, she immediately understood her situation.

"So here's how it is," she began aloud for Jaune's sake, only wondering how she must've looked just standing there in the middle of the room tapping invisible objects, "The reason why I've been so calm about coming to terms with this whole thing and talking to _you_ about it is because my semblance has affected my mind and body. I have the mind of a video game character, which I don't understand at all."

Jaune couldn't help a small chuckle at her concentrating expression - her lips pursed to the side once more as she squinted her eyes at whatever it was she was reading. When he woke up this morning, Jaune never would've guessed that Blake would be the first one knocking at his door, much less the events that happened next. But this was proving to be a rather enjoyable development.

"Well if you think about it," the knight mused aloud, "when playing a game, your character never experiences fear before facing a boss... you just click _continue_ and the character walks right in. So it makes sense that you'll have more control over your stress in the real world now."

Blake nodded with a satisfied hum at his explanation.

"And as for my body, I think I've figured that out. In many games, a character will sustain damage only in stats but not physically, right?"

"Right!" he exclaimed, impressed with her assessment.

"Well I've noticed it already - any pain I previously felt is extremely temporary, and I'm no longer affected physically by my injuries. It must only be taken out of my HP bar I see in my main status window."

The knight gave a thumbs up in agreement before replying, "Great, got that out of the way. You mentioned your main status window. Anything outstanding about your stats?"

Blake returned to the window in question and gave the info another look-through. Guessing what the abbreviations stood for, she began to explain her findings.

"It says I have forty points to expend between what I'm assuming is Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, Intellect-"

"Intelligence."

"Figures. And Wisdom and Luck are the last two choices."

Jaune milled over the options for a moment, Blake's growing eagerness to experience the effects finally getting to her.

"Hmm, my Luck is terrible. I guess I'll just add a few points her-"

Blake was cut short when Jaune rushed over and grabbed her hand with surprising reflexes before she could tap the corresponding button.

"No, don't do that!"

"Why not?" she asked flatly.

"Because if your luck is terrible right _now_," he began, "how do you know you're not making a bad decision by taking a chance on something as critical as your stat points!"

Blake huffed as she looked back down at the window before nodding in acknowledgment.

"Fine, I'll distribute them equally-"

"_No_," Jaune urged while still holding her hand back, "Would you rather have several _moderately_ boosted stats or a few _heavily_ boosted stats that work for your fighting style?"

"...Alright, what do you suggest?"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking..."

The catgirl waited for a brief moment before speaking up again.

"Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"You can let go of my hand now."

"O-Oh!" he sputtered as he let go of her, a blush quickly growing on his face before he changed the subject, "Ch-Choose Vitality."

"Vitality?" she echoed quizzically.

"Yeah, if your semblance is now gone, that means you're more vulnerable to attack while you get used to your new abilities. So, I'd say split thirty points or so between strength and vitality as a safety net while you get used to things and you should be fine."

"Hmm. Good thinking."

_Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap..._

After another minute or so, Blake couldn't help a smirk at her finished work.

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv12**

**...**

**HP: 500/500  
****MP: 300/300**

**...**

**STR: - 18 +**

**VIT: - 29 +**

**DEX: - 19 +**

**INT: - 13 +**

**WIS: - 7 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 10  
****Money: 300 Lien**

* * *

"Well, that should do it," she announced finally, "But why not use the remaining ten points now that I have them?"

"Because it's better to have a safety net for when you've managed to get the hang of your new semblance," Jaune replied quickly, "That way, you have room to make adjustments and improve stats you feel are more relevant to your skill set."

"Ah. Clever."

This Arc fellow was surprising the young woman more and more as things went on. Maybe her decision had turned out for the best after all.

She made no effort to hide her impressed smirk that egged on the knight to continue on his hot streak as she pitched another curveball, "Then I guess that just leaves finding time to level up. Any ideas?"

"Easy," Jaune quipped with a winning smile, his evident confidence in this topic and ease of conversation in general having surpassed all of the catgirl's expectations, "Ozpin sent our teams a message earlier this morning saying that we've earned a week off for our group efforts yesterday, and I know our teams will probably be occupied for the next couple hours either sleeping of doing stuff."

Blake chuckled unexpectedly, causing the knight to blush as he watched her features light up while she put her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to one side, "My my, Mister Arc. You really have all your bases covered, don't you."

Jaune was both confused and intrigued by her gradual change in character... could it be an effect of her semblance on her mind and personality too? Or had this conversation actually been a success in getting these two to hit it off despite their differences? Maybe _this_ was the confidence his dad had always told him about. In any case, his best bet was to stick with what he knew and to continue helping her to the best of his abilities.

Which at the moment suddenly gave him an idea.

"Well Blake, I'm just getting started!" he remarked quickly as he turned and ran to the closet to change, closing the door behind him for privacy.

Well... _almost_.

Catching the girl off-guard, Blake tried to will herself to look away as she noticed him through a six-inch gap from the door being left open. After picking out his usual attire and combat gear, the onesie came off. Her breath hitched as she caught a generous glimpse of his toned back, his deltoids clearly having grown from frequent handling of Crocea Mors along with his lats that had clearly given his back that attractive V-shape Blake had always found so intriguing in men. She could only imagine how well-toned his front must've been by now with-

_**PING!**_

**[_Observe_'s level has risen by 1.]**

Her blush came on in full force as she looked at the pale blue notification in front of her and realized what she had done.

'Oh _my_...'

"U-Um, Jaune?" she called out mousily, trying to shake off the image of his changing that she knew deep down inside wouldn't be erased anytime soon, "What are you doing?"

And finally hopping sideways out of the room in full attire, nearly tripping over himself as he attempted to wedge his shoe securely into place, he stood up and hiked his thumb over his shoulder to the surrounding forests outside the window indicatively.

"Getting ready. Cuz you and I are going to Emerald Forest."

Blake's brows shot up as she realized the Arc Knight was completely serious in his suggestion despite the living hell they'd been through the day before.

"What for?"

A wide ear-to-ear grin grew on his admittedly handsome features before he finally replied with a pat on Crocea Mors.

"_Time to grind._"

* * *

**A/N:** _Hi there, **TPS** here! I'm just gonna come out with it and say I'm a HUGE fan of **The Gamer** and I knew I'd eventually get around to writing a RWBY fic along these lines sooner or later. But given the fics on the site that already touch on the idea, I figured I'd put a little spin on it :) I really hope you like it!_

_Honestly, this is just one of those side projects I decided to work on to get my writing mojo back to update my other fics (like **Chronicle**, **Jaune Arc: The Force Unleashed**, and **John Carter of Remnant**) so I doubt I'll be coming back to this for a while. But then again, _**you**_, dear reader, have the final say! If enough of you wish for me to continue, I'll sure put this story higher on my priority list to keep the chapters coming :)_

_So **Fave, Follow and Review** to show your support, and I hope you enjoyed the pilot chapter!_

_**-And as always, Happy Reading!**_


	2. The Grind

**_The Grind_**

_A/N: Not THAT Grind... Get your mind out of the gutter... Sheesh._

* * *

"_Time to grind._"

"..."

"..."

"One thing before we do that..."

"What does 'grind' mean?" Jaune guessed curiously, albeit innocently.

"What does _grind_ mean," Blake deadpanned.

Jaune sighed, a blush beginning to overcome his features as he realized the double entendre he had just let slip. Nonetheless, he adopted a confident smirk and crossed his arms matter-of-factly.

"_Well_, Miss Belladonna, that's just one of _many_ gaming terms you're gonna have to get used to now that we're working with your semblance. 'Grinding' is another word for the hard work that goes into leveling up... you know, 'the grind'?"

Blake blinked, a slow-burning blush lightly reddening her cheeks, "Oh... for a second I, thought it meant... something else..."

"Nope!" Jaune exclaimed with a grin, glad that he hadn't totally ruined his good streak he had going on, "So it might be a good idea to get your gear before we go. 'Cuz I don't think you'll be able to grind very well unarmed and in basketball shorts."

'Does he _have_ to keep using that word?' Blake hedged internally, feeling uncomfortably warm at the notion but quickly shrugging it off realizing that she'd have to get used to it one way or another.

"I'll... see what I can grab from my dorm."

And with that, Blake stepped out of Jaune's dorm and shut the door behind her, letting out a heavy sigh and wiping her brow with the sleeve of her hoodie before slipping into her dorm.

Quietly making her way from the door to the closet, she couldn't help recapping what had just happened.

'What's gotten into me? Tripping up on words... checking out _Jaune_...'

But her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a light cough. Freezing in place as she noticed Weiss turning in her sleep, she kept perfectly still lest the heiress wake.

**_PING!_**

'Oh not _now!_'

**[A skill has been created through a special action.]**

**_PING!_**

**[A skill to avoid detection, _Stealth_, has been created.]**

'Oh,' Blake deadpanned at the glowing window before a sly cat grin grew across her face, 'Now _that's_ a skill I can work with.'

Waiting for a moment more in her current position for good measure, Blake then slowly inched her way into the thankfully open closet without making a sound, silently shutting the closet door behind her.

"_Phew_..."

**_PING!_**

**[_Stealth_'s level has risen by 1.]**

Blake chuckled darkly at the notification window before closing it out, rubbing her hands together in elated anticipation of the... grinding? ...that would be necessary to level up that particular skill.

'Maybe this Oum-forsaken semblance won't turn out to be too terrible after all,' she mused internally, now setting herself to the task at hand, 'Now to get to business.'

As she looked over the outfits in the closet, her mind drifted to the topic of Jaune momentarily once more. But at this point, her usually analytical mind, now imbued with the calmness of the Gamer's Mind, easily rationalized her previous actions as a moment of weakness. After all, Jaune was the first male she had interacted with for quite some time that she wasn't either trying to actively avoid or to smash their face in.

But taking off her hoodie and shorts, leaving her in front of the full-body closet mirror in only her bow, grey panties and matching sarashi which she preferred over conventional bras, Blake scratched the back of her head as she rethought her outfit.

"I'm thinking I should probably ditch my usual get-up if I'm going to be facing enemies without the aid of my previous semblance... probably should go with something with more... _coverage_."

A light blush forming as she recalled how scantily clad the battle at the pavilion the day before had left her, the catgirl then turned to her section of the closet and immediately picked out her Intruder outfit.

Slipping on her snug black leggings which had a grey stripe on each side, she bent over and pulled them up until they sat just under her toned tummy and waist before hooking the belt-pouch in place, the knee-length black and violet banner-like pieces of fabric attached to it falling freely at her sides and around her hip. Then taking her calf-length boots out the corner, she ensured the single black military strap on each was well secured before straightening up and looking for her top.

"Haaaa..."

Indulging herself in a silent morning yawn and a brief stretch with arms over head which brought much relief to her tensed back, she reached over and pulled out the white v-neck zip-up shirt, putting it on in a single turning motion. Once she zipped it up to satisfactory height, checking her mid-length sleeves and slipping on the black ribbons she customarily kept on her forearms, she flashed a quick smirk at her reflection and reached out for-

"Oh no... Gambol..."

In a corner of the closet lay the sheath of her weapon, the area where her blade would normally occupy all but empty except for a brief note. Blake picked it up and scanned over its contents.

_Thought it'd be a good idea to send your blade to the forge to have it fixed while you were busy drooling on your pillow. Should be done by end of day! Feel free to thank me with a back massage~_

_-xoxo, Yang_

Rolling her eyes as she stashed the note in her pocket and slung her sheath over her back, Blake huffed as she mentally re-read the note.

"Typical Yang..."

Straightening out her top, which to her chagrin she had forgotten didn't cover her midriff at all, Blake sighed at herself and silently slid out of the closet and dorm.

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[_Stealth_'s level has risen by 1.]**

**[_Stealth_'s level has risen by 1.]**

"Hehe~"

"Ready?"

"Gah!" Blake jumped back as the mildly-startled Jaune paused mid-inspection and sheathed his sword to look at her.

"Huh, _that's_ a new outfit..."

"You _snuck up_ on me," the miffed faunus-girl hedged as she walked towards him, punching him in the arm as she passed him by.

He threw up his arms in exasperation behind her, "I didn't do anything! You came to _me!_"

'Apparently I need to re-develop my detection skills,' she mused as the blonde finally caught up to her, 'This semblance is rather irksome_._'

"Everything okay?" he asked slowly, treading cautiously lest he set her off again.

Blake huffed sharply, the draft blowing her bangs upwards for a second before she turned back to Jaune, "As far as current circumstances allow, yes. It seems some of my _previous_ abilities aren't up to par under my new semblance."

Jaune cocked a brow at the information, "You mean you've been nerfed."

"Nerfed?"

"You know," Jaune began to explain with a noncommittal shrug, "When certain skills or stats get downgraded from one gaming platform to another."

The catgirl couldn't help scoffing at the fact, "Well that's _stupid_..."

"Yeah, life can be unfair that way sometimes... don't even get me started on how much they nerfed Samus in the new Smash Bros game-"

"_Jaune_..." Blake interrupted with a glare, albeit a not-so-harsh one over a small smirk.

"Oh... hehe, right," he chuckled nervously as he scratched the back of his head, "Anyway, back on topic. We gotta see how well you do leveling up against Grimm. A few kills should be enough for you to get the hang of things!"

"So that's why we're going into the Emerald Forest?" Blake questioned as the pair slipped out of the campus undetected and made their way towards the forest.

"That's right."

"And indiscriminately killing Grimm is supposed to help me level up faster?"

"Right again! Two for two," Jaune quipped, flashing her another grin as they reached the tree line and he brandished his sword.

But holding an arm out to stop him in his tracks, Blake put a finger to her mouth in a warning gesture, each student holding still as a light breeze flitted through the evergreen canopy around them.

"What is it?" Jaune whispered cautiously.

Blake looked around once more, scanning the area with a raised brow until deeming it safe to reply, "We may be a fair distance from the cliffside, but there may still be Grimm lurking between that area and our current position. Without my previous level of enemy detection, I'd rather play this one as safely as possible."

Jaune shrugged in acknowledgment before treading behind his new companion, the students carefully making their way through the woods with weapons unsheathed as Blake took the lead.

"You know, we _will_ have to actually _run into_ some Grimm in order for this to work... you know that, right?" the knight quietly spoke after a few minutes of uneventful hiking.

"Of course I know that," Blake began, keeping her eyes ahead of herself as she continued onward, "But just to be sure, any skill I have can be leveled up with repeated actions, yes?"

"Well technically," Jaune began in his normal-volume voice, prompting Blake to turn and give him another shushing gesture before he continued in a whisper once more, "Well _technically_, that's how most passive skills work. Some active skills may only be voice activated, so you should watch out for those."

"Hmm, okay..." Blake trailed off as she was struck with an idea.

"Hey, what are you-!" Jaune yelped but was cut off as Blake went down to a crouch, dragging him down with her under some thick bushes as she quieted him once again.

He waited for a few seconds, beginning to fear for his life at the possibility of something big and dangerous around the corner, before glancing at the smirking faunus girl with a confused expression.

"What's going on _now?_"

**_PING!_**

**[_Stealth_'s level has risen by 1.]**

To Jaune's surprise, Blake snickered at nothing in particular, his confusion growing more until she finally spoke up.

"So, for me to level up certain skills, I don't exactly need a _reason_ to use them... just the mere _action_ causes the level to go up! This is almost too simple~"

Jaune blinked at her as he caught on to what she was saying, "Wait. So you get an alert every time a skill levels up or something?"

Blake nodded smugly.

"So... then you're saying you nearly gave me a heart attack, not because we were in any _actual_ danger, but because you wanted to test a skill!?"

She nodded again, but this time more slowly and without the smirk.

The blonde then stood up, throwing his arms out like someone who had just heard a terrible joke, "Well a _little_ heads up will be nice next time!"

"Jaune... Where are you going?" Blake asked as the knight began walking away, to which he turned, still walking backwards out of the forest into a clearing as he spoke up... though not exactly to answer her question.

"Honestly, I've only been with you for like fifty minutes and I can already tell you're like my whole team in _one_ person: Nora's unpredictability, Pyrrha's skill, and Ren's mysterious silent type thing!"

The cat faunus in question raised a brow at the somewhat accurate description, deciding whether or not to count that as a compliment when her eyes suddenly went wide as to where Jaune was heading.

"Jaune, wait! Don't take another step!"

"I'm just getting a decent vantage point for us to find some low-level Grimm or something!" Jaune shouted, now at a decent distance from the increasingly worried ravenette, "But I didn't quite catch what you just said!"

Blake cupped her hands around her mouth in a desperate measure to get the point across before it was too late, "I _said_, DON'T TAKE ANOTHER-"

_CLANK_.

Jaune froze as his back foot stepped on something hard, "Umm..."

_ticktickticktickticktickticktick_...

"...Did I step on a landmine or something!?"

Blake could only put a hand over her mouth in shock as she gently shook her head, "Oh... it's _so_ much worse than that..."

_...ticktickticktickDING!_

Jaune barely had the chance to look down to realize what he had literally gotten himself into, "_Why_-"

_**TWANG!**_

"-_MMMEEEEEeeeeeiii...!?_"

Blake sighed, deadpanning as she shook her head, "Jaune, only _you_ would find a way to get yourself flung off a cliffside launchpad _twice_ in one year."

* * *

_Meanwhile, in midair..._

"This is _NOT_ how I imagined myself dying! It's _NOT!_" Jaune shrieked as he awkwardly flew through the air.

Spiraling rapidly, he had to squeeze his eyes shut to keep from being disoriented further, his panic rising as he realized there would be no Miló to nail him to a tree this time. But he desperately needed a way to break his fall. If only he had a force field...

"Wait!" Jaune exclaimed, his eyes shooting open as he was struck with an idea and heard a faint second _twang_ in the distance, "_Force field__! _Of _course!_"

Recalling how Pyrrha had unlocked his aura and the effect it'd had when he was up against Cardin, Jaune knew that at the very least his aura was extremely effective at defense. But just _how_ much, was a chance he was willing to barter his life on as he expanded his shield.

"I will LIVE..." Jaune began as he held his shield out in front of him like a buffer, willing his entire being into bracing itself for impact against a particularly robust tree, "To die another _DAAAAAY!_"

And to his surprise, just before impact he saw his body begin to glow...

_BOOOM! KRKRKR-CRRRUUUNCH! eeeeeeee-CRASSSHHH!_

Some indeterminate amount of time later, Jaune finally awoke face-up on the ground to see the remnants of his white glow dissipating as a poker-faced Blake appeared above him.

"Did... Did you see that?" he croaked weakly as he turned to her and tried flashing a grin.

"You blew a hole in a sequoia... and then crashed through a redwood... and then completely shattered a pine tree. Which broke your fall as you fell on top of it without receiving a single scratch," Blake began flatly, explaining the events until giving a slight pause to break a smile, "All in all... _crude_, but impressive Jaune."

"_Wait,_" the knight deadpanned in surprise, "You mean I'm not in pieces strewn about the woods right now!?"

Blake held a hand to her mouth to stifle a chuckle, "_Pfft_, no Jaune. You should be fine. Let me help you up."

And taking his hand to help him up with little more than a groan on his part, Jaune was soon standing without issue.

"Thanks," he began, brushing himself off as he bounced on the balls of his feet a bit to ensure nothing felt off, "Now all we gotta do is get away from this clearing, cuz I'm sure lots of Grimm heard-"

_grr..._

Blake's feline ears perked up underneath her bow, the all-too-familiar sound growing by the second.

_GRRRRR..._

"This is bad, isn't it," Jaune remarked flatly.

_**PING!**_

**[After detecting an overwhelming amount of bloodthirst, you unlocked the skill _Detect Bloodthirst._]**

**_DING!_**

**[Derect Bloodthirst (Passive) LV1 - EXP: 0.00%]**

**A skill that detects any bloodlust directed at the user.  
****It is an instinctive skill.  
****Detects bloodlust within 30m from the user's location.  
****It also alerts the user of its origin.**

Blake cleared her throat nervously as she read the first pale red window she'd seen with skill details since the core Gamer skills in JNPR's dorm.

"Umm..."

_**PING!**_

_**PING!**_

_**PING!**_

**[_Detect Bloodthirst_'s level has risen by 1.]**

**[_Detect Bloodthirst_'s level has risen by 1.]**

**[_Detect Bloodthirst_'s level has risen by 1.]**

"...yeah. It's bad."

"_Great_," Jaune sighed sarcastically, slowly twirling his sword out to a battle position, "Out from the frying pan and into the fire."

Blake turned towards the ominous myriad of red eyes surrounding them from behind the dark canopies and inched closer to Jaune with a single command as she unsheathed Shroud, "Just stay behind me and watch my back... we can make it through..."

Jaune nodded as the rumbling growling around the entire area came to an eerie stop.

"Let's do this."

_RAAAWWWRRR!_

Three Beowolves pounced at once at the pair, Blake cutting down the first Grimm before it got near them and Jaune blocking the gaping maw of the second. Slamming it down to the floor and pinning it as well as he could, Jaune yelled as he slashed down several times, dismembering the beast completely until it was little more than disintegrating wisps of black smoke.

"Heh... ha _HA!_" he exclaimed in pride, hoisting Crocea Mors in the air victoriously only to turn and find eleven or twelve Grimm carcasses withering away on the floor around them, the dealer of the damage still in combat stance as she stared at a particular spot in the forest, "Aw _man_. Outdone again."

"We've only bought ourselves a reprieve," Blake began quickly in a hushed whisper, "More are coming."

"Can we run?" Jaune asked with slight alarm.

"Too late."

He groaned silently, lightly panting as he began to feel the soreness in his body, "Then tell me you've at least leveled up."

She turned to him and cracked a sorry smile, "Not really, I'm afraid. Each kill is only worth about twenty EXP, but I did level up on my Sword Mastery skill at least."

Jaune gave a brief thumbs up before heaving a long sigh, "You know, Ruby once told me about a time she came across a whole horde of Beowolves..."

"We have neither the ammo nor the semblance to emulate her skill right now," Blake replied flatly, "Right now we just need to- LOOK OUT!"

And in a flash, the ravenette leapt towards Jaune and swung her sheath across the Beowolf that had tried sneaking up on Jaune from behind, hacking its arm off then cracking its skull open with the thick side of Gambol Shroud's sheath.

The Grimm dematerialized completely by the time it even hit the floor.

**_PING!_**

**[A skill has been created through a special action.]**

**_PING!_**

**[A skill to utilize blunt weapons freely, _Blunt Weapon Mastery_, has been created.]**

"D'ohhh, I don't need _that_..." Blake hedged under her breath.

"Blake, behind you!"

And immediately sensing the direction that the bloodthirsty Beowolf was approaching behind her, the miffed catgirl let out her frustrations in one fell swoop.

"Hiii-YAH!"

_SSSRAK!_

The sheath flew as if it were crafted to be the blade instead, the solid frame making merciless contact with the aggressor. Completely obliterating the creature of Grimm, Blake smirked and straightened out with a satisfied _hmpf _as it fell to the floor in halves.

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[A skill has been created through a special action.]**

**[A skill to deliver a strong blow, _Power Strike_, has been created.]**

**_DING!_**

'Another red window?' the catgirl thought to herself, now figuring out the difference in the notification sounds.

**[Power Strike (Active) LV1 - EXP: 0.00%]**

**Strikes the target with strong force.  
****15% increase in critical rate.  
****50% increase in attack damage.**

"Yes!" Blake exclaimed in as hushed a way as she could manage, the knight surprised at the small fistpump she did through the air, "Now _that_ sounds more like it."

"Did you level up?"

"No," Blake replied with a smile, further confusing the Arc, "But I received my first Active skill!"

"Great," Jaune quipped with a tired smile, "Cuz you might wanna use it on _that_ guy. Along with any info that might help me beat these things easier too."

Blake turned to find another lone Beowolf standing in the clearing, growling and baring its black fangs as the catgirl thought of a way to examine it.

Her head ticked to the side as she mumbled aloud, "Wait. I wonder if I could observe- oh!"

* * *

**Beowolf LV8  
****HP: 300(300) MP:50**

**A Creature of Grimm; a ravenous, destructive force that covers the majority of Remnant.  
****It hates mankind, setting its sights on man and his creations.  
****Although prone to leaving openings for blocks and counters, it has high STR and critical rate.**

* * *

"Got it!" Blake yelled in Jaune's direction, keeping her eyes on her foe that was within pouncing distance, "Just let them strike first! Block, _then_ counter for higher success rate!"

_GRRAWR!_

The catgirl ducked under the grimm's first overhead swipe, waiting for her opportunity.

"Remember the active skill!" Jaune shouted quickly, "It'll most likely be voice activated!"

Watching her narrow her eyes and gripping her sheath with both hands under the Beowolf as it completed its slashing arc, Jaune gaped at how Blake began to glow a dim pale blue as she swung her sword around in a full turn from the ground upwards for momentum.

"_rrrrrrr-POWER STRIKE!_"

_POW!_

Striking the underbelly of the tall beast, Gambol Shroud made contact with so much force that the entire creature exploded in a violent blast of black mist. Blake stood there panting as the smoke settled around her, wide-eyed at her own work.

"I-I can't believe it!" Jaune exclaimed in hysterical disbelief with a hand to his head, "You just One-Hit-Killed a Grimm - I thought only _Yang_ could do that!"

"I've never been able to do that before with a single melee strike," Blake mumbled slowly as she looked down at her still-glowing hands.

But almost as if the explosion were a long-distance dinner bell from hell, the entire vicinity around the pair rumbled to life, several fairly agitated Beowolves now appearing and ready to strike.

"Hah!" Jaune snickered confidently both for himself and his powerful companion, "Alright you wily coyotes... _come get some!_"

_ROARRR!_

Jaune sprinted towards the first Beowolf's attack, shield raised to block its first strike,_ "Yahhh!"_

Blake turned with renewed vigor, gritting her teeth as her body began to faintly glow once more against the pack of oncoming darkness.

"Power Strike!"

"Power Strike!"

"Power Strike!"

Metal and bone-cracking carnage resounded throughout the woods, seconds stretching into minutes as the fighting continued until Jaune stood over his five kill streak with pride.

"Heh... that actually _worked_..."

"J-Jaune?"

The panicked voice caused the knight to quickly turn to see Blake facing the last three Beowolves of the pack of at least two dozen that had attacked them. However, her arms seemed to be shaking, barely able to hold up her smoking weapon as she eyed the prowling beasts.

"Jaune," she began slowly once more, strained worry pulling at her voice, "I... I can't _move_... you need to get out of here!"

"Not a chance!"

The Arc quickly sprung into action as the first Beowolf made its move, cracking its jaw with the blunt force of Crocea Mors' shield as he turned to deliver a back-handed slash across the spine of the second. But the third being left a clear path to its immobilized prey, all Blake could do was turn her head to bury it in her shoulder as the creature of Grimm pounced at her head jaw first.

_SHHHUNK!_

Blake slowly opened her eyes once she was sure that death hadn't overcome her, picking her head up but jerking it back as she saw the open jaw of the hideous beast merely inches from her face... but not as close as the tip of the sword that was currently protruding out of its disintegrating mouth.

Pulling out Crocea Mors from behind the beast and sheathing his weapon, Jaune stepped over and placed both hands hurriedly on Blake's shoulders, quickly checking her for injuries.

"What happened? What's wrong?"

Blake blinked as she desperately tried to figure it out herself, "I-I have no idea... no matter how hard I willed myself to attack, my body wouldn't let me... I... I could've gotten us both _killed_..."

Jaune furrowed his brows at the shivering girl, vehemently shaking his head as he tried to calm her, "Shh shh shh, no reason to say that - we are both alive and kicking," but unable to find any visible sign of damage, Jaune's brow quirked as a question came to mind, "Wait. Blake, can you check your status window? I want you to look for anything that has a zero on it."

Taking a deep breath and letting her Gamer's Mind do its work, Blake calmed down enough to stop shivering and nodded, "Status Window."

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv12**

**...**

**HP: 465/500  
****MP: 0/300**

**...**

**STR: - 18 +**

**VIT: - 29 +**

**DEX: - 19 +**

**INT: - 13 +**

**WIS: - 7 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 10  
****Money: 300 Lien**

* * *

"Anything?" Jaune asked as he stepped back and let the ravenette look over her stats.

Blake nodded slowly, still showing signs of strain as her body remained largely frozen in place, "Yes... there's an MP bar that says it's at zero."

"MP?" Jaune echoed quizzically, to which the catgirl nodded slowly, "Then that can't be anything other than _Mana Points_; your attack bar, so to speak. Once it reaches zero, you can't attack... except in your case it's worse. You... can't do _anything_."

Shuddering at the thought, Blake glanced at her stats once more, her brows shooting up as she took another look at the bar, "Wait! My Mana bar just went up by one!"

Taking a deep breath, she let out a small smile as she managed to roll her shoulders back and slowly sheath her weapon, flashing Jaune a wider smile before trying... and failing... to take her first step.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" the knight yelped as he quickly caught the weakened young woman before she hit the ground, "Yeah, sounds like your typical Mana Regeneration attribute, which in your case seems like one MP per minute. It might look like we're safe for now, but there's no telling that we won't run into any more Grimm on our way back... and I'm pretty sure that a single attack costs more than one MP."

"Then what do _you_ suggest," Blake asked flatly as she looked up at him from his arms, "Waaa!"

She yelped in surprise as Jaune swept her up effortlessly into a bridal-style position in his arms, smirking at her as he made his way out of the clearing.

A few moments passed, Blake looking up at the knight carrying her through the woods before she spoke up with a faintly raised brow, "You know, Jaune, you could just let me walk and regenerate Mana on my own; the few points would be more than enough for me to handle any stray Grimm we meet on the way..."

Jaune jokingly scoffed at the proposition, "_Or_, we can have you _rest_ for a while which in some cases causes a character's Mana to instantly regenerate fully. That way, you'd be able to handle enough Grimm to save _both_ our butts!"

The catgirl smirked, smacking her lips chidingly before smacking Jaune's chestplate, "_Fine_. Have it your way."

The pair walked on for a few more minutes, Jaune shifting Blake's weight after a while to readjust her position which caused her to blush as his hand ran against her bare lower back during the process of regaining its hold.

"Sorry."

"It's... okay," Blake replied mousily, an awkward silence setting in between them as the faint pink hue in her cheeks remained.

Wanting to change the subject to ease the situation, Jaune spoke up about the first thing that came to mind, "Nice trick you pulled back there with figuring out the Beowolves. How'd you know about the blocking?"

Blake pursed her lips to the side in thought, recalling what she knew about the skill that had brought it about, "Well, I have this observation skill... which now that I think of it is likely another active skill, considering that it activates every time I say it..."

"Cool," Jaune replied with a small smile as he carefully stepped over a log, causing Blake to unexpectedly roll a little closer onto him, "Sorry again."

"It's fine," she quipped with a short chuckle, "But the skill gives me useful information about a target, sometimes stats and sometimes even some background information."

Jaune hummed with an impressed expression, "That could be really useful. Have you tried grinding that skill?"

"How would I do that?" the ravenette asked, quirking her brow in curiosity.

"Same way you leveled up your _Stealth_ skill," Jaune hedged with a deadpan at his companion, "With repeated use."

Blake snorted at his expression, "Oh don't be so dramatic."

"_You_ say dramatic, _I_ say reasonable," Jaune defended with a huff, "You had me fearing for our lives!"

The faunus girl shrugged, brushing it off idly, "It would've been fine. Those Beowolves are only level eight after all."

At that, Jaune's eyes lit up, "Wait, you you can see others' levels too!? That's so cool, what level am I!"

Blake was suddenly able to look at anything and everything _except_ him as she slowly replied, "Well _you're_... level six."

"Doesn't sound too bad. And you?"

"Level... twelve."

Blake almost expected for him to drop her right then and there, the Arc slowing down his walking speed as his jaw slackened a bit.

She was almost about to suggest him letting her walk on her own once more so he could come to terms with his less-than-satisfactory level when he spoke up flatly, "Well _that's_ embarrassing. So does that mean you're twice as strong as me?"

The ravenette tried flashing an apologetic smile to comfort him as he resumed walking, "I don't know... maybe?"

At that, Jaune nearly tripped on an overgrown branch, thankfully keeping a solid grip which kept Blake from falling. But instead of suggesting she walk again, this time Blake merely raised a hand near Jaune's face as he continued the hike, the action catching his attention and prompting him to turn to her with a questioning glance.

"Do you... uh," Blake began quietly, her cheeks threatening to start blushing again as he slowed to a stop, "Do you mind?"

"What do you mean?"

Ignoring his denseness, Blake simply wrapped her arms around his neck lightly for support, pulling herself up to a more comfortable level for him to manage more easily.

"Just... that. It shouldn't be too much longer until we get back to campus anyway."

Jaune cleared his throat, fighting the faint blush growing on his cheeks as well. Having seven sisters, he was used to having a young woman literally hanging off of him, but this time was different for the obvious reason that the young woman now in his arms was _definitely_ not related to him. It felt uncomfortable, but at the same time, it felt... nice.

Of course, in his thought process, 'nice' meant gentlemanly, being the helping hand he was supposed to be for any and all who needed it at the time.

"It's okay," he added after another moment or so of silence, "We should probably head to the library when we get back anyway."

"The library?" Blake echoed curiously, pretty sure the library wasn't exactly Jaune's preference considering that the last time she saw him there was when Neptune was introduced... and Jaune was practically dozing off behind an _X-Ray and Vav_ comic.

Not that she was paying attention.

"Yeah," Jaune continued, adopting his usual casual attitude, "If there's one place you can level up your observation skills without looking like a total weirdo, it's looking through books at a library. Besides, libraries are kinda your thing, right?"

Blake smiled at his consideration, unable to deny the soundness of his logic. Maybe leveling up Observe could give even more useful info about her targets and enemies in the future.

"I... guess so," she replied warmly, "Are you sure you won't be too tired from hauling me all the way over there?"

He grinned at her, surprising her with the confidence that had seemed to come out of nowhere during the past couple hours, "Meh. I'll be fine. Actually, getting myself flung off the cliff kinda taught me how to summon my aura more easily. All I gotta do is concentrate and... there we go!"

And just like that, his body and arms began to glow a soft white, Blake immediately feeling his stride smooth out and his arms solidify underneath her. It was a strange sensation, feeling the emanating warmth that doubtlessly was his natural energy surrounding her... but it suddenly imbued her with a relaxing sense of peace.

Jaune walked on much more easily through the woods now, the ravenette readjusting herself slightly in his arms but with hers still around his neck. It really was a strange feeling... as if she felt she could be truly safe for the first time in ages.

"Wow... you must have quite a lot of aura to be able to do this after all we just did," Blake remarked in surprise as she noticed his aura's flow still going strong.

"But you did most of the work... besides felling some trees, I didn't really do much to expend my aura," Jaune defended simply, raising a brow at her indicatively.

"Alriiight," Blake hedged groggily, but more from the soothing warmth she was experiencing than her fatigue. As a matter of fact, she suddenly realized that she wasn't feeling any more fatigue at all.

She faked a cough to slip in a whispered command, "Ack, ahem! *status window* Ka. Kah."

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv12**

**...**

**HP: 465/500  
****MP: 300/300**

**...**

**STR: - 18 +**

**VIT: - 29 +**

**DEX: - 19 +**

**INT: - 13 +**

**WIS: - 7 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 10  
****Money: 300 Lien**

* * *

'Hmm... I haven't healed at all,' Blake observed mentally as she unwittingly rested her head on Jaune's shoulder pad, 'But Jaune was right. It seems that after about a half hour of rest, my MP bar refills entirely.'

Blake thought of telling the knight that she was fully rested now, she really did... But for some reason, she just couldn't bring herself around to doing it...

"Ack, would you look at that?" Jaune asked rhetorically with a smirk a few minutes later after realizing Blake's breathing had evened out and she had gone completely deadweight in his arms, snoozing peacefully, "Out like a light. I guess she really needed the rest."

It took a full twenty more minutes to get back to campus, but with his vast aura reserves, Jaune was surprised how easy it felt even when he let his aura fade out before putting the ravenette down outside the main grounds.

"Blake? Blake? Blaaa-"

"Wh-what?" the amber-eyed girl mumbled as she slowly woke, her eyes fluttering open until everything was clear around her including the grinning knight.

"Hey there sleepyhead, we're just outside Beacon, not too far from the library. Feeling up to some book browsing?"

"Haaaaa..." Blake yawned, stretching briefly where she sat before casting a hint of a smile at the knight, "Sure. Let's go."

It felt nice to be going to the library with someone else for once...

...

...Even if said person was only interested in reading comic books.

Blake glanced over at the chuckling knight as he flipped through the most recent issue of _X-Ray and Vav,_ rolling her eyes as she browsed through another shelf in the vicinity and picked out a book.

"Observe."

**[_WAR AND PEACE - by Leo Tolstoy_]**

**Delineates in graphic detail events surrounding the Great War, and the impact of the Menagerie Battles on Remnant society as seen through the eyes of five Faunus aristocratic families. **

"A long read, but definitely worth it," Blake hummed happily as she replaced the book and pulled out another, "Observe."

**[_THE TWILIGHT SAGA - by Stephanie Myers_]**

**Four fantasy romance novels that chart a period in the life of Isabella "Bella" Swan, a teenage girl who moves to Atlas and falls in love with a 104-year-old bat-faunus named Edward Cullen.**

"_Ugh_. Bite me."

Blake placed the book out of her sight before pulling out another one that had caught her eyes, "Hmm, _Fifty Shades of Grey?_ Sounds interesting... Observe."

Blake's eyes slowly widened as she read through the information window of the book that could possibly - _possibly_ \- even rival _Ninjas of Lov_e, her gaze furtively darting to and fro before silently scanning it with her scroll to check it out of the library and placing it in her library bag.

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[_Observe_'s level has risen by 1.]**

**[_Stealth_'s level has risen by 1.]**

"A two-sided victory, I suppose," Blake reasoned before pulling out the last book in the row, "Interesting. A book about Aura, I wonder if Observe can-"

**_PING!_**

**[You've obtained the skill book _Aura: Advanced Manipulation and Techniques._]**

**Would you like to learn the skill?**

**Confirm (_Y_) - Decline (_N_)**

"I'm... no longer certain that this has anything to do with Observe," Blake mumbled as she read and reread the window.

She bit her lip as she debated whether or not to go along with this unknown function. Was the use of aura simply a skill in her Gamer world? If so, what effect would learning these techniques have on her... would it even be possible? Nonetheless, curiosity slowly got the better of her and she could no longer resist, her hand reaching towards the _Confirm_ button.

"I suppose there's no harm in trying..."

_tap_.

**_BEEP!_**

'That's a new sound,' the catgirl thought to herself as a dark red window popped up.

**[You cannot learn this skill.]**

**Required VIT: 20  
****Required INT: 20**

A saddened mewl escaped Blake's lips upon reading the window, the bow on top of her head slowly drooping until it suddenly shot up with an idea.

"Wait a minute... Status Window."

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv12**

**...**

**HP: 465/500  
****MP: 300/300**

**...**

**STR: - 18 +**

**VIT: - 29 +**

**DEX: - 19 +**

**INT: - 13 +**

**WIS: - 7 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 10  
****Money: 300 Lien**

* * *

"Just as I expected~" Blake whispered joyfully as the same cat grin from earlier grew on her face once more, "I already meet the Vitality requirement; I only need seven more INT points whereas I have ten to spare!"

Holding the book in one hand, Blake tapped her chin with a finger of her free hand as she came to a rather swift decision.

_taptaptaptaptaptaptap_

"There, that should do it."

Closing out the window, Blake glanced at the previous confirmation window and tapped the corresponding button with gusto.

_FLASH!_

_**PING!**_

**[You have learned the skill _Aura_.]**

**_DING!_**

**[Aura (Passive/Active) LV1 - EXP: 0.00% MP: 30]**

**Aura - the manifestation of our soul.  
****A necessary energy source for all Hunters, being a powerful ally in battle which can be used in conjunction with that of others to defeat mighty foes.  
****_Passive_ attributes can be used for a wide range of abilities depending on skill level.  
****_Active_ attributes activate upon sensing danger.**

**PASSIVE:  
****Unlocks _Dust Proficiency_ skill.  
****Unlocks _Sense Danger_ skill.  
****Unlocks Multi-Player support.  
****STR increase 10%.  
****VIT increase 10%.  
****DEX increase 10%.**

**ACTIVE:  
****HP regeneration 10 per minute.  
****MP regeneration additional 400%.  
****Mana ****reset time reduced 50%.  
****STR increase additional 25%.  
****VIT increase additional 25%.  
****DEX increase additional 25%.**

A very surprised Blake looked down after reading the long window at the book that now began to glow in her hands.

"Wha-?"

Noticing the flash of light that appeared in the corner of the library where Blake had been rummaging through a minute ago, Jaune stood up to look for her. A few seconds later, he found her on her knees in the middle of the aisle, staring at her outstretched hands as if she had just killed someone.

"Blake! Are you... _crying?_"

The ravenette in question slowly looked up with watery eyes, the looks of which literally tugged at Jaune's heart until he felt like he could start crying along with her right then and there, "I... I didn't mean to..."

He walked over and got on his knees in front of her, pulling her in for a hug despite the fact that she didn't even move her arms as if she were holding something, "There there, you're okay... what happened?"

Slowly wrapping her arms around the concerned knight, Blake sniffled and began to the best of her abilities, "The alert... it.. it asked me if I wanted to learn the skill and I said yes... and then the book disappeaaared!"

Jaune deadpanned as the girl dropped her head onto him and began quietly sobbing into his shoulder, both because he wasn't quite good at handling a young woman crying and because of what she had just said.

"Ewhat."

"*_sniffle_* The _book_, Jaune!" Blake exclaimed, her voice muddled through his shoulder, "It promised me power but only delivered _despair!_"

"Um. Okay," he continued, pretty sure he had never seen Blake this emotional over... well... emotional at _all_, "But you said _skill_ and _book_. Am I to believe this has anything to do with a skill book?"

Slowly pulling back and wiping her nose with her sleeve, the ravenette nodded meekly and Jaune lightly stood them both up leading her by her arms. The news of course caused a bubbling of excitement within him, but in consideration for the girl in mourning over the book that was lost in the amazing process, Jaune merely spoke up calmly.

"Okay then... just, join me at the table, 'kay?"

"Mhmm..."

Still leading her by her arm, the pair sat in the corner of the library at a small secluded table across from each other, the knight pulling out pen and paper in front of the catgirl but not before first adding a few words of comfort.

"So this skill book... it vanished after you consented to learning the skill, right?"

"Yeah," Blake replied, clearing her throat and giving a final wipe to her eyes that she was glad didn't have any makeup on them to ruin with the tears.

"Then it's just like a game that uses a skill book system - as soon as you learn a skill, the knowledge from the book flows into you completely causing the book itself to disappear. But as a book-lover, you should be _happy!_" Jaune encouraged while lightly placing his hand on her forearm, the faunus girl cocking her head at the strange words, "You see, many textbooks and guides just sit in the library unused, the few students that read them rarely ever reaping the full benefits from them... but _you_, Blake, you've done the author of that book and the creator of those skills the ultimate honor - learning said skills down to the 'T'!"

Blinking at the surprisingly effective encouragement, Blake smiled faintly and began to nod, "I... I guess so..."

"So cheer up," Jaune continued, now placing the writing instruments in front of her before giving her a casual shrug, "Besides, I'm sure the library has tons of copies... I mean, _look_ at this place!"

Blake chuckled a bit, glancing at the knight unsurely as she picked up the pen, "What's this for?"

"For you to write down every buff you obtained from that book. It'll help me get an idea of what we're working with here."

"Oh. Alright," Blake conceded as she dipped her head and began writing on the paper, causing Jaune to smile when he saw how the tip of her tongue would stick out the side of her mouth while she concentrated on writing.

"Anyway," he began, shaking off the thought of how adorable she looked when she did that, "What skill did you learn exactly?"

"Aura."

"Aura?" Jaune echoed as Blake looked up and passed him the finished sheet, "That doesn't sound like it would help much."

"Oh but it does," Blake remarked, "Whereas before when we fought earlier, I could only subdue three dozen enemies or so, I'd now have the ability to defeat closer to five dozen... which is about what I was capable of doing before all this..."

"Ah, and I see you've unlocked a skill you wanted _and_ some!" Jaune stated happily, "You got Dust Proficiency, Sense Danger, Mu-"

The catgirl cocked her head to the side as she glanced at the knight who had practically frozen in place on a particular set of words on the paper.

"Jaune, you alright?"

Even with her Faunus ears, she could barely hear more than a whisper from him as a devilish grin began growing wide across his face.

"party."

"Um, Jaune? You're... scaring me," she added uncertainly as he turned up to look at her with a scheming smirk.

"_Partyyy_~"

"Umm..."

"Blake, do you _know_ what this _means!?_" Jaune finally spoke up, enthusiastically pointing at the Multi-player attribute on the paper he was now holding up, to which she shook her head blankly, "This _means_ that you can invite others to join you in your quests or when grinding, sharing EXP and stats which in turn help the others level up!"

The ravenette blinked as the ecstatic knight continued in his own tirade.

"Except in _my_ case, being that our level difference is so great, a party with the two of us would help me improve faster than I could've ever hoped for!"

"So... You're saying that if we hunt together under this multi-player function, I'm practically giving you a free ride to higher levels?" Blake asked curiously.

"Yes! All aboard the _Belladonna Bus!_" Jaune exclaimed as he stood up and did a fist pump in the air, prompting a few students in the general vicinity to turn and shush him before he sat back down with a sudden shiver, "Uh, Blake? Is it me or did it just get a little colder in the library?"

Blake glanced around and back at her arms as goosebumps rose with a small shudder of her own, "Definitely not just you. Could be the air conditioning."

The knight shrugged, the chill doing nothing to assay his elation as he looked back down at the sheet, "And these buffs look great! You'll even be able to cut your mana reset time in _half!_"

"Yeah, a fifteen minute turnaround does sound nice," she commented idly before realizing her mistake.

"Fifteen minutes?" Jaune asked questioningly with a raised brow, "You mean your Mana could reset with only a half-hour rest before? I'm pretty sure I was carrying you for the greater part of an hour out there..."

"Eheh..." the ravenette chuckled bashfully, a light blush coloring her cheeks, "It... must've slipped my mind?"

Not buying the bluff, Jaune leaned forward on the table over an elbow and flashed the flustered girl a knowing smirk, "So you got yourself a free ride on the Arc Express _too_, eh? You sly dog..."

"Erm, _cat_... actually," Blake mumbled as she tilted her head down, her eyes no longer visible.

"Eh?"

"Cat. It's the more suitable term in this case."

"No no, you see, it's actually a _saying_ that- ohh..." Jaune cut himself off as he noticed Blake's wiggling bow.

It may not have seemed like much, but it was certainly the first time Blake had brought up her heritage so easily with a human before. Sure, team RWBY was no exception, but it sent a small tingle through the ravenette knowing that she'd just breached the topic without any need to whatsoever. And with _Jaune_ of all people.

"Hey, let's make a bet," Jaune continued after a moment with a warm smile, "You and me join a party and we go out to put your new buffs to good use. Once we get the hang of things, we play a game of 'Who's the Better Killer', and if I win, you let me see your ears. Deal?"

Blake quirked a brow, never one to pass up a decent bet, "And if _I_ win?"

His expression immediately faltered, apparently due to a lack of his thinking the plan through fully, "Um, if _you_ win... you get to... see, my sword?"

The catgirl facepalmed, hiding the blush that returned with a vengeance as she muttered, "_Jaune_. You make the _worst_ choices in words..."

"Um... sorry?" he replied innocently, not catching what she meant at all as he got everything together on the table and stood up to put them away, the catgirl eventually bringing her hand down to shake her head at him with a smirk and to stand up as well.

"Play your cards right, and I might take you up on that deal, Mister Arc."

He grinned as he tossed the skill list into the nearby trash bin, "Deal. Let's get out of here."

But the unexpected exclamation that suddenly came from behind them stopped them each in their tracks, the ravenette and the blonde simultaneously gulping involuntarily as they slowly turned to face their aggressor.

"_Not __so fast!_"

* * *

**A/N: **_Well now there's TWO chapters. Great. Honestly, I didn't think I'd be getting back to this story for a while... but then again, breaking 100 followers and 1000 views in just over 24 hours has a way of motivating you like that :) In any case, the plot has been thought out and well underway to already being written (i.e. Scribbled on tissue papers and sticky notes around my house) so it is official - **The Gamer Girl** will play on! :D_

_Just a few side notes and fun facts about me: I love The Gamer but have little to no expertise on RPGs in general, I will likely put references to my favorite fandoms and other RWBY fics in this story (have fun with the Easter egg hunt), and no, I have not read **The Games We Play**. Yet ;)_

_But thank you all for your awesome reviews and kind kind words, and don't forget to **Fave, Follow and Review** to show your continued support! Till next time!_

**_And Happy Reading!_**


	3. P A R T - Y? Cuz I Gotta!

**_P A R T... Y? Cuz I Gotta!_**

_A/N: Bonus points if you recognize the reference ;)_

* * *

"Play your cards right, and I might take you up on that deal, Mister Arc."

"Deal. Let's get out of here."

"_Not __so fast!_"

Blake and Jaune froze, slowly turning to find a fairly miffed heiress with arms crossed and currently tapping her foot on the floor rapidly.

"Oh uh... hey, Weiss," Jaune began meekly, the snowy-haired girl completely ignoring him as she now directed herself to the ravenette.

"Do you have _any_ idea how close I was to declaring another team emergency!?" she continued emphatically, "I thought you had gone AWOL on us yet again!"

The Arc quickly tried jumping in again to defend the catgirl, "W-Weiss, it's not like that, it's just-"

"upupup! _Shut it_," she interrupted, keeping her gaze on Blake while snapping her thumb to her other four fingers shut in front of Jaune's face before turning to narrow her eyes at him, "Unless you can _explain_ to me what you two have been up to all morning!"

The knight visibly shrunk under the heiress' gaze as he chuckled nervously, "Aaand if I told you Blake and I have been strolling through the woods slaughtering Grimm by the dozens?"

Weiss rolled her eyes, "Then I would scoff derisively at your terrible excuse of an idea and call you a dunce for your miserable attempt to fool me."

A moment passed, Jaune glancing at Blake and then back at Weiss, and he shrugged.

"Well, that's all I got."

The Schnee stared at him for a second, blinking once in incredulity before she slowly shook her head and scoffed.

"You _dunce_."

"Weiss, there really wasn't much to it," Blake now stepped in calmly after having recovered from her initial shock, raising her hands at the icy heiress placatingly, "I had forgotten to check in several books before they became overdue so I began making my way to the library when I bumped into Jaune, who offered to help me."

Pouting in thought, Weiss rolled over Blake's explanation in her mind, seeming to buy it - being that Jaune was that kind of guy, after all - until her brow shot up in suspicion.

"Very well, then _where_ were you two going?"

Blake glanced furtively at Jaune, a ghost of a smirk gracing her lips before emulating the knight's shrug nearly perfectly to the expectant rapier-wielder.

"To stroll through the woods slaughtering Grimm by the dozens."

Weiss audibly groaned, her shoulders slackening before reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose as Jaune tried to cover his chuckle.

"_Uuugh_. _Obviously_ I won't be getting anywhere with you two," she began begrudgingly, "And honestly, I don't care. The important thing is that you're okay, Belladonna..."

However, her hand fell to reveal a deathly ice glare at the knight as she pointed at him accusingly, "But _you_... if I later find that the both of you have been engaging in any manner of conduct that may be deemed _indecent_..."

Jaune gulped as she took a step closer to him, the two only a foot or so apart as her face darkened and evil lightning seemed to appear out of nowhere around her.

"I will _find_ you... _And I will **skin** you_..."

"..._meep_..." a cowering Jaune finally let out after what looked like at least a minute of him holding his breath.

Once she was satisfied that her murderous resolve had sunken in, she turned on her heel and straightened up, her ponytail bouncing as she directed herself at her teammate with her usual polite smile as if she had never just threatened the life of the young man beside her.

"Anyway, good morning Blake. I'll tell Ruby and Yang that you stepped out for a while when they wake. Enjoy... whatever it is you both are about to do."

And with that, she turned and strode out of the library like she didn't have a care in the world, the practiced Schnee grace evident in her every gliding step. After she had left, Blake turned to Jaune, patting him on the shoulder consolingly to snap him out of his fear-induced stupor.

"Could've been worse."

"I... I think that stare may have stolen a few years from my lifespan," Jaune mumbled before finally shaking himself out of it and turning to the ravenette with a worried expression, "You sure Yang and Ruby will handle it okay at least?"

"Those two?" Blake replied with a small chuckle, "They take their sleep _very_ seriously. After a day like yesterday, I doubt they'll even be awake anytime soon."

She looked over the knight once again as he failed to make a reply, his face still a little pale after experiencing his first direct threat from Weiss. It made Blake rather curious though... Weiss, the sharp-eyed and even sharper-minded member of team RWBY, _actually_ thinking that Jaune and her could be engaging in 'loose conduct'? They hadn't even spoken to each other directly until that morning! It made no sense, but either way, Blake made sure to pay attention to Jaune's state of well-being after being so affronted as he replied.

"I-If you say so," he began shakily before nervously trying to flash a smirk, "Um... uh, you know what, I'm just gonna go use the bathroom real quick... cuz um... I uh..."

"Go ahead," Blake finished for him with a benevolent smile, the knight nodding in gratitude before racing out of the library.

'I can't really blame him,' the catgirl mused as she went about choosing another aisle of books to look through - but Monty forbid _destroy_ \- while waiting for Jaune's return, 'I'm rather certain that even _I_ would've lost some HP under that glare...'

She chuckled at herself for actually using a gaming term in her mind as she reached out to grab another book, but for some reason failed to pay attention even to its title. Little did she know that her _innermost_ thoughts weren't quite through with the previous subject in regards to Weiss' wild speculation.

Without realizing, a sliver of doubt came back up in her mind... _Her_... and _Jaune_... could it really-

"Ohai Blake!"

The unexpected call startled Blake despite the softness of the voice, causing her to blush as she came to identify the thoughts that had been so suddenly interrupted. Turning around, she replaced the book and glanced around the edge of the aisle to see a pair of droopy brown bunny ears a few feet from her position, their owner seated at the table across the aisle waving at her.

"Oh," Blake spoke up, smiling with hint of relief as she approached the table, "Velvet, I... didn't see you there. Sorta surprised me."

"Ah? And here I'd heard you had a reputation for being impossible to sneak up on," the fellow faunus girl commented in her distinct accent, one ear drooping and the other up in question as was her habit, "Or at least very difficult to catch off guard."

The catgirl nervously grinned, shrugging her shoulders as nonchalantly as she could, "It's... funny how much can change from one day to the next, I guess."

"I'd say so," Velvet agreed cheerily before adding with a knowing smile, "May it have something to do with the Arc fellow who just left a minute ago?"

"Er, no!" Blake replied just a hair too quickly, catching the blush before it could surface and waving away the bunny girl's inquiry, "No no, we were going over a project I need to work on, that's all."

Velvet merely nodded sweetly, the smile never leaving her face as she added, "Be that as it may, I know that look on a girl's face when I see it... it happens to a lot of first-years here actually."

Blake quirked a brow, her curiosity robbing focus from her defense as she casually took a seat across the sophomore, "Really?"

"Oh yes," Velvet mused as she lifted a finger to her chin in thought as if about to retell a known story, "You see, you first-years come to Beacon and experience an entirely new environment, and eventually you get to meeting new people and making new friends - some just take longer than others. But in making so many new friends, there's often that short-lived stage in some of those newly-formed relationships where you ask yourself, 'May we be compatible as _more_ than friends', you know?"

Velvet's amiable explanation caused Blake's cheeks to warm a bit, the catgirl finding her words and logic perfectly sound, "I... suppose you have a point."

The bunny-eared girl warmly smirked at the ravenette's implicit confirmation of her suspected qualm, content with the opportunity to offer an underclassman some helpful advice.

"Then don't worry!" Velvet continued with hushed excitement, a wide smile on her face as she placed a hand on Blake's forearm comfortingly, "It happens, and it passes. Same thing happened to me and Yats our first year too... my thoughts began to wander for a while but they passed, and Yats and I remain great friends and partners!"

Blake nodded understandingly, a relieved smile growing on her face as she stated, "Hmm... Thank you, that really helps put things in perspective."

After all, it had only been a few hours. Sure, it was apparent that she and the knight had at least hit it off, but it was over such a mundane subject that had it not been for yesterday's incident, Blake never would've breached it with him in the first place. Let alone trusted him to lead her into hostile territory to do something like _level up_. It had been a strange few hours at the very least, but despite his relatively lacking skill, Jaune had shone - _literally_, at some points - during a few key moments here and there. Not to mention the fact that he had saved her life.

'And I haven't even found a way to properly thank him for that,' Blake realized internally as she recalled his lack of hesitation when it came to saving a girl he'd barely ever spoken to.

But still, Velvet made a good point. Since Sun, Jaune really was the first boy that Blake had found herself conversing with at any length since her stay at Beacon, and even after only two days spent with the monkey-faunus, her team didn't stop making insinuations about the two for at least a month. Wouldn't it be natural then that Blake, being a teenager after all, had entertained the notion of a possible relationship with the knight, albeit briefly?

And so without realizing, the Gamer's Mind helped Blake rationalize her situation and persisting doubt until she was interrupted by Velvet discreetly clearing her throat, well aware of the catgirl's current musing.

"Anyway," the bunny-faunus began, contentedly readjusting herself in her seat a bit after having had the unexpected opportunity to engage in some 'girl talk' that she usually only engaged in with Coco, "The reason why I called you is because I wanted to commend you for you and your team's efforts yesterday. We were told that it was thanks to our teams that the Grimm were held back long enough for Atlas' forces to arrive."

"That's good to know," Blake replied with a sincere smile.

"But did everything turn out okay for you guys?" Velvet questioned once more, one ear perking up as usual, "I heard you were ambushed in the melee by an Alpha Beowolf, and those don't really appear around Vale much."

The catgirl instinctively pursed her lips to the side at the painful memory, the explosion that had thrown her into the GameStop and the strange events after that which she still couldn't quite explain...

"It... was a jarring experience," Blake drawled truthfully, "But fortunately, I recovered... rather quickly."

"Ah. That's good to know," Velvet echoed in turn with a warm smile, "I'm glad you are alright!"

"Likewise," Blake replied with a small grin, about to get up when she glanced down at the book that the girl was reading, "Catching up on studies? I would've figured Ozpin gave your team the week off like he did ours..."

"Oh he did. But you know, I figured I'd get a head start to stay on track... and to avoid the symphony of snoring that is currently my team in the dorm," Velvet added with a giggle.

Blake smiled at the girl's joke, glancing down at the book itself. It was rather thick, an old leather-bound codex filled with the special arts of Hunters and Huntresses who had mastered the ability of implementing aura and Dust in healing.

"So you're studying to be a healing Mage," Blake observed slowly, her companion nodding in confirmation, "I didn't know it was your specialty."

"That's understandable. You know how Coco can be," the velveteen bunny quipped with a grin, tapping her heart-lock box beside her which presumably held her weapon of choice, "I've been working on it all year, and she wants me to save it for a special occasion."

But Blake wasn't quite paying attention after the first word or two that Velvet had uttered, her focus now completely engrossed in the book. She felt - no, somehow _knew_ \- that this book could very well be another skill book... and for some reason, something was beginning to override her pious respect for the written works of literature. It was as if a hunger were compelling her to consume the book, to digest it, and to reap the benefits...

'It... must be an effect of raising my INT,' she reasoned mentally as she instinctually licked her lips due to the dryness in them that her inner conflict was causing, 'A thirst for knowledge that comes with the heightened attribute...'

But she couldn't bring herself to destroying another book - it wasn't in her, it wasn't who Blake _was_... was it? Then again, Jaune's words did ring true as Blake re-thought her current situation and predicament. These skills would be necessary for her to survive, the knowledge critical in progressing with her new semblance and possibly a deciding factor in defeating a future opponent! It was... It was...

"Does the library have any other copies?" Blake asked quickly, confusing her fellow faunus.

"Of...?"

"The book."

"Ah," Velvet replied plainly, turning in her seat to glance around an aisle behind her, "Let's see... _Vecchian Aura Recovery_... should be two more aisles down, halfway through the aisle, second shelf to your left."

Blake nodded quickly before responding, "Thank you. It was nice talking to you."

"Same! Take care," the second-year student replied sweetly, "We bibliophiles need to look out for each other after all!"

The catgirl smiled at Velvet, beginning to make her way to said aisle briskly before slowing to a stop.

'Lets see... _V, V_... Ah, here we are,' she recounted mentally as she walked through the shelves before pulling out the book in question.

There were plenty of books in the world. She would be sure only to take those of _utmost_ importance, and to find a way to pay back the library for her... _permanent_... check-outs.

**_PING!_**

**[You've obtained the skill book _Vecchian Aura Recovery_.]**

**Would you like to learn the skill?**

**Confirm (_Y_) - Decline (_N_)**

"I _knew_ it," she mumbled triumphantly as her eyes shone at the inviting pale blue window, her finger quickly reaching for the confirmation button.

_tap_.

**_BEEP!_**

'Agh. Curses.'

**[You cannot learn this skill.]**

**Required VIT: 30**

Blake cocked her head, milling through her options, 'Well, it's only one more point assuming aura buffs don't count... besides, the restrictions merely assure me of their value.'

"Status Window."

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv12**

**...**

**HP: 465/500  
****MP: 300/300**

**...**

**STR: - 18 **_**+1.8 +**_

**VIT: - 29 _+2.9 +_**

**DEX: - 19 _+1.9 +_**

**INT: - 20 +**

**WIS: - 7 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 3  
****Money: 300 Lien**

* * *

"Simple enough."

And placing the corresponding point to VIT, she then returned to the previous window and pressed the confirmation button once again, hoping that no one would see the flash of light that was about to follow.

_FLASH!_

_**PING!**_

**[You have learned the skill _Vecchian Recovery_.]**

**_DING!_**

**[Vecchian Recovery (Active) LV1 - EXP: 0.00% MP: 50]**

**Vecchia, as in the name of a possible kingdom that predates modern history. Or a centuries-old misspelling of _Vacuo_.  
****Aura Recovery, an advanced aural healing technique.  
****Vecchian Recovery, said to have originated in Western Remnant centuries ago by Dust-wielding mages, it is believed that these powerful entities were the founders of Vacuo and early precursors to modern Hunters and Huntresses.  
****One of the many techniques they developed was the Vecchian Aura Recovery skill, which transfers the user's aura into the target for healing effects.**

**With a _Green_ Dust crystal, HP 100 Recovery. MP 100 Recovery. Status effect removed. Illness removed.  
****Without a _Green_ Dust Crystal, HP 100 Recovery.**

"Now _that's_ a skill!" Blake couldn't help exclaiming, her eyes widening as a technique she never thought she'd be capable of learning sunk into her mind to the level of total mastery, "Let's try for a test..."

She silently chuckled as she took a deep breath to savor the fresh knowledge, flexing her hand to prepare for what she was about to try. Her command came out in an excited whisper as she placed her hand on her opposite forearm.

"Vecchian Recovery!"

_SHOOM!_

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[35 HP recovered.]**

**[HP filled.]**

But what she didn't expect were the notifications that followed.

**_PING!_**

**[_Aura_'s level has risen by 1.]**

"Oh?" Blake muttered as the next alert window popped up.

**_PING!_**

**[The skill to directly use mana, _Energy Bolt_, has been created.]**

"Whaaa...?" Blake uncharacteristically drawled as she stared slack-jawed at the window before regaining her composure, "Might this be an added passive skill unlocked by leveling up my Aura? ...I'll have to ask Jaune."

**_DING!_**

**[Energy Bolt (Active) LV1 - EXP: 0.00%]**

**A skill that attacks by emitting mana.  
****Attack power increases by INT.  
****Range 10m.**

"This," Blake mumbled, no longer caring how she might look talking to nobody in particular in the middle of an empty library aisle as she slowly began to nod with a smirk, "_This_ may just turn out to be an incredible ability after all..."

"Blake? Blaaake? _Blaaa-aaake..._"

Her feline ears perked up to the sound from underneath her bow before her gaze did from the skill window, following its approaching direction along with the growing number of frustrated _shushes_ from other library-goers before the blonde knight finally appeared around the corner of her aisle.

"There you are!"

"SHUSH!"

"_Alright already!_" he hedged as he turned back to some unseen students behind the shelves before facing an amused Blake with a tired smile and a shrug, "So how'd it go?"

She cracked a small smile as she recalled casually, "Let's see... leveled up Observe a few times - think it's up to level five or so - and gained a few new aura abilities. I'd say this library trip was a definite success."

"Awesome!" he replied with a grin, "Can't wait to see you in action. Turns out this was a great idea!"

* * *

"_Oh Monty this was a TERRIBLE idea!_"

Jaune dodged yet another bony claw-strike from a Beowolf in the Emerald Forest before slicing the creature of Grimm down, ducking under another pouncing offender with a turn to straighten out back to back with Blake.

"Ya _think!?_" the catgirl yelped sarcastically as she landed a critical hit on a Beowolf on her side of the melee, sending its misty remains raining on the dozen or two more Beowolves behind it as she continued to stand her ground.

"But we just got _back_ here! It's like they knew we were coming!"

She raised an arm and sliced through a Grimm, punching another pouncing Beowolf in the head which sent a satisfying sound of a cracking skull to her ears, "Well it doesn't help that we practically returned to the same area we were at earlier. At least I'm getting decent EXP out of it. _Power Strike!_"

_CRACK!_

Another Beowolf sent flying into a trunk from a devastating punch to the chest.

But after another minute or so, their numbers began to dwindle as the pair continued their defense until Blake finally drew Gambol Shroud's sheath out of the spine of the last Beowolf.

**_PING!_**

**[Your level has risen by 1.]**

"Heh, _took_ long enough," the ravenette mumbled, wiping her brow before turning and speaking up to the blonde knight, "Not bad, Jaune. Looks like you held up pretty well."

The panting Arc who was currently bent over and wheezing barely managed to turn to look up at the young woman with an unbelieving glare before exhaling sharply with a chuckle at their defeated opponents, "Welp, there goes the welcome wagon."

Blake glanced around the dissipating carnage of obsidian flesh surrounding them along with the many splintered and shattered tree trunks around the clearing before quaintly adding, "There goes the _neighborhood_."

"And besides," Jaune continued after taking a deep breath and standing up, exhaling loudly in a third attempt to calm his heart rate, "I didn't handle too many of them... maybe a dozen at most? Most of them looked like they wanted to get at _you_... _Phew_ I'm outta breath right now!"

The catgirl pursed her lips in thought, furrowing her brows as she mentally recalled the number of Grimm that had come at her and met their violent end, 'Could've been at least three dozen...'

"Well, that _is_ a theory, I suppose," she remarked quietly before glancing at the knight with a grin and an idea, "But as for your current condition, I believe I may have a fix for that."

"Eh?" Jaune sweat-dropped as Blake began approaching him with a hand raised, the confused Arc taking a step back as he stammered, "W-Wait, w-what are you doing?"

"Just relax," the faunus student hedged as she lightly took hold of his forearm, "It's a healing technique I learned at the library."

At that, his eyes brightened at the mention of her putting her powers to good use, "_Cool!_"

"I thought you might say that," Blake quipped with a smirk before closing her eyes and taking a breath, "_Vecchian Recovery!_"

_SHOOM!_

**_PING!_**

**[100 HP recovered.]**

The catgirl raised a brow at the knight, "More than a hundred HP lost? Looks like you took a hit or two."

"Or three... or four," he added meekly, chuckling nervously as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

Blake stifled a chuckle before refocusing on the task at hand, "Alright, let's try this again. Vecchian Recovery!"

_SHOOM!_

**_PING!_**

**[100 HP recovered.]**

"...hmm," she mused silently, waiting for the _HP Filled_ notification that never came.

"Vecchian Recovery!"

_SHOOM!_

**_PING!_**

**[100 HP recovered.]**

"Um, everything okay?" Jaune asked with concern at seeing Blake's face redden slightly in frustration.

"Strange," she muttered, ignoring his question and turning to narrow her eyes at him instead, "Observe."

* * *

**Name: Jaune Arc  
****Class: The Knight****  
****Level: Lv7 _(Nxt lvl: 43.7%)_  
Rank: _D_**

**...**

**HP: 19930/20000  
****AP: 215/300**

**...**

**STR: 150 _-135 _**

**VIT: 235 _-211.5_**

**DEX: 80 _-76 _**

**INT: 7 **

**WIS: 15 **

**LUK: 42 **

* * *

'AP... hm, must stand for _Attack_ Points instead of _Mana_ Points,' the catgirl mentally reasoned before presenting her results.

"Well the good news is that you've leveled up. As far as HP goes, all I need to do is-" Blake began somewhat calmly but suddenly caught herself as her eyes went wide as saucers at the window, "WHAT. Twenty _thousand_ HP!?"

At that, Jaune had a fairly similar reaction, slack-jawed and unable to speak as Blake scrutinized the data in front of her, her aversion to any form of injustice - even for something as menial as character stats - lighting a small flame of righteous fury within her.

"Bu- Wha- STR is _a hundred fifty_ for crying out loud!" she continued adamantly, the window staying in front of her as she began pacing back and forth in the clearing while the hapless knight watched, "That must be at _least_ fifteen times stronger than a normal person! Not to mention VIT and DEX! And all that at level _seven?_"

"U-Um, Blake," Jaune interjected slowly, reaching out a hand to try and calm the incredulous catgirl as she continued fuming, "There's no need to lose our heads over this..."

"What _are_ you," she inquired flatly at the knight, squinting her eyes at him in an almost comical fashion as steam seemed to come from her head, "That's _so_ not fair..."

"C'mon, seriously?" the blonde knight asked with a surprisingly disarming smile that unbeknownst to him actually had the effect of calming her a bit, "I certainly don't _feel_ like I have the strength of fifteen men... especially right now..."

He exhaled sharply, finally catching his breath as Blake took a few steps closer and sighed upon reviewing his status window, "Well, _that's_ because there seems to be something seriously affecting your stats as well. I guess as you might put it, you've been... _nerfed?_"

A small smile growing on him towards the ravenette's increasing usage of gaming lingo, Jaune nodded, "Maybe. But I still find it hard to believe that I even _have_ that kind of attribute level since I have no way of checking it myself," he paused before his brow went up with an idea, "_Unless_..."

"Unless what?"

"..."

"..."

"_p__artyyy~_"

Blake deadpanned at the knight who was now sporting an evil grin, "I swear to Monty, Jaune, say it like that again and I'll-"

"Okay okay," he replied quickly, waving his hands at her placatingly before putting a hand to his chin in thought, "But now to figure out the party function..."

"Hmpf."

Blake turned and crossed her arms in a huff, poking her nose up as she stated simply, "And _why_ would I still need to help someone as overpwered as yourself, hmm?"

Jaune scoffed in exasperation, waving his arms in the air behind Blake despite the fact she wasn't even looking at him, "Aw c'mon! You said it yourself that I've been nerfed! I'm still the Average Joe Jaune that everybody knows and loves!"

Cocking a brow with a smirk, she partly turned her head in his direction, arms still crossed as she echoed smugly, "That everybody knows and _loves?_"

"It's a figure of speech!"

Blake couldn't hold back a smile at his equally exasperated reply, not bothering to do so as he couldn't see her anyway. Yet in spite of everything, she also knew there couldn't be any valid reason to be upset over his potential - after all, he _was_ an Arc... and right now, _she_ had the status quo in her favor. So turning around with a calm smirk and arms remaining crossed, she spoke up airily.

"Alright then, what is you would like for me to do for you, Mister Arc?"

He narrowed his eyes at her, nearly pouting as he answered, "You're really liking this new power, aren't you."

"...Mayyybe."

In all honesty, Jaune couldn't quite believe what was happening. Having owned a cat before, he knew that most cats were distant until you got to know them... after which, many would show quite the unexpected personalities. And seeing that a Blake was a _cat_ Faunus, he was pretty sure that at some point this morning, she had actually begun to open up to him. He wasn't sure when, where, or why, but he was pretty sure that he'd never seen the ravenette toy with anyone like a ball of yarn ever since he'd met her.

And at the moment, he wasn't sure whether to be flattered by the fact she seemed to be loosening up around him or irked that he was currently the ball of yarn in question. But for the time being, he'd settle with putting it on the backburner in favor of gaining some real-life EXP.

...After a quick verbal jab.

"Meanie."

"Pfft, what are you talking about?" Blake replied without missing a beat, her self-satisfied smirk still gracing her features as his name-calling tactic glanced off of her harmlessly, "I'm super nice."

They stared each other down for a moment before the catgirl finally broke the silence with a humored snort, the knight joining in as they both began to chuckle at their actions before he waved her off with a warm smile.

"Whatever. Just try saying _New Party _or something."

She replied with a relaxed thumbs up, "Sure. _New Party_."

"..."

"..."

"Anything?"

"No," Blake drawled pensively, "I'll try something else. _Create Party._"

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[You've created a party.]**

**[What would you like to name your party?]**

Blake sent Jaune a cheshire grin as she remarked, "My way worked better."

He merely rolled his eyes with a smirk as the next blue window popped up in front of her.

**_PING!_**

**[Would you like _My way worked better _to be your party name?]**

"It may be true, but no," the ravenette mumbled with a snort before turning towards the knight, "Hey, what should we name the party?"

He thought it over for a moment before snapping his fingers dramatically, "Easy. _Belladonna Bus Ride!_ Cuz I'm getting a free ride to higher levels, hehe..."

Blake deadpanned with a visible tick on her forehead as she glared at the knight, "_Fine_. I'll humor you for once."

"Why? You mad?" he pressed on with a knowing grin.

She rolled her eyes with a smirk as she turned back to the window, "Belladonna Bus Ride."

**_PING!_**

**[Would you like _Belladonna Bus Ride_ to be your party name?]**

**Confirm (_Y_) - Refuse (_N_)**

She didn't care to hide an exaggerated groan as she tapped the confirmation button, causing the Arc to laugh aloud at her subtle antics.

"Cool, now try inviting me."

Coming up with the first thing that came to mind, Blake shrugged as she stated in Jaune's direction, "_Invite to party._"

And to his surprise, and immediate elation, a pale blue window popped up in front of him with a _ping_.

"This... is... SO COOL!" he began with a girlish squeal, earning a mellow nod of agreement from the smiling catgirl, "Let's see what options we can get here!"

Blake took a few steps closer to the knight in her curiosity until she was standing beside him, looking over his shoulder as he deftly went through multiple windows like the seasoned gamer that he was.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, nothing much. Checking party options like Equal Distribution and Leader Settings," he explained as he continued opening and closing a small stack of windows, the catgirl unable to keep up and deciding to idly check the state of her weapon instead as the knight became further engrossed in his own task, "and I think I saw an option about member stats around here and... Ah! There you are!"

She hummed in distant acknowledgment, cleaning some dirt off of Gambol when Jaune began with an evidently impressed tone in his voice, "Well... _wow._ I know I haven't said this before, but... just so you know, you're looking pretty good, Blake!"

Blake froze where she stood, a blush quickly appearing on her pale complexion before she looked up at the knight - only to see he was still going through her stats. Facepalming at her misunderstanding, she groaned aloud, "_Jaaaune_..."

"What. Was it something I said?" he quipped innocently as he looked up from his window at the distraught ravenette, shrugging away the heated glare coming from her direction as he continued, "Anyway, I'm done going through our stats and settings. I think I might know what's going on with me, but without your Observe skill at a high enough level to see exactly what's wrong, there's only one way to find out."

Exhaling sharply to ease her inner tension, blowing her jet-black bangs upward before they settled down again as usual, Blake hedged flatly, "And how would you go about 'finding out'?"

He grinned complacently as he held up a finger in the air, "I found an option that lets you share your buffs and certain active skills across everyone in the party... which includes a little thing called..."

Jaune spun and pointed his upheld finger at a nearby tree like a gun before shouting, "_Energy Bolt!_"

**_BEEP!_**

**[You cannot use this skill. Negative Status Effect active.]**

"_Aha!_ I knew it!" Jaune exclaimed as he read the window to Blake's steadily growing curiosity, "There's a status effect of some kind limiting my aura!"

"That's strange," the catgirl mused aloud as she sheathed her weapon and made her way toward the knight and the suspended notification, "A restriction on aura? That's supposed to be extremely difficult, if not impossible."

"System alerts don't lie~" the knight reminded lightly before crossing his arms, "But I wonder what the effect could be..."

"Are you sure your aura was unlocked correctly?"

To Blake's surprise, Jaune turned a shade darker as he quickly spun to face her and sputtered a defense, "O-Of course it was done right! I'm pretty sure that it couldn't have been done better than by anyone else I could've asked for!"

"Jeez. Alright," Blake replied calmly, raising her hands placatingly at the nervous Arc, "Well I suppose I'll have to level up my observation skill a few more times, maybe we'll get the info we need that way. Wanna do another library run?"

"Mm, after breakfast," Jaune suggested, his nerves now replaced with the loud rumbling of his stomach that interrupted him, "Besides, we've both leveled up out here already so I think we've done enough for today."

The faunus-girl held a hand to her mouth to cover her smile at his protesting digestive tract before replying, "Sounds good, I suppose our little party will have to wait for another time. Aaand... just to be sure, you won't collapse out of hunger, right? I don't think I can carry you in my arms for very long."

"Veeery funny," he hedged as they both began walking back towards the cliffs in a comfortable silence, a few minutes going by before he decided to break the silence, "You know, I was thinkin' something..."

"Mhm?"

"Those Beowolves out there... they almost looked organized, y'know?"

"How so?" Blake remarked as she ducked under a tree branch to make her way forward, casting a furtive sideways glance at the pensive Arc in the process.

"Well for starters, they seemed to gravitate more towards _you_ the entire time..."

"Yes, Grimm have been known to stack their numbers against those they deem a larger threat," Blake explained nonchalantly, the knight merely shaking his head in disagreement.

"I know that. But this felt _different_. You see, in games, when you get a horde of enemies that jump you without warning, that's what's called a _Mob.._."

"Alright..." the ravenette acknowledged in her indication for him to continue.

"Well... in many RPGs, wherever there's a mob, you're bound to eventually find a _Mob Boss._"

"A what?"

"A Mob Boss," Jaune repeated as the pair went through a particularly dense section of the forest canopy into a wide meadow-like clearing, "A stronger opponent that appears after you've defeated a certain amount of mob enemies... and we've already cleared out what I'm pretty sure are two mobs today."

"Then maybe this isn't one of _those_ RPG games," she suggested as she raised her arms to her sides with a hopeful shrug, "Either that, or our luck today is actually looking-"

**_GRRROOOAAARRRRR!_**

"-like Ursa fodder."

"Sounds about right!" Jaune exclaimed with rising panic as an enormous Ursa tumbled into the clearing from the other end, facing the two students with a murderous gaze that alerted the catgirl succesively.

**[_Detect Bloodlust_'s level has risen by 1.]**

"I think we should run," Blake nervously stated, Jaune looking around the clearing quickly and turning back to her with a shake of his head.

"No good!" he declared, his assessment of the situation complete, "This definitely looks like a Mob Boss stage! Running won't help us... we'll have to face it!"

"And how do you suppose we do _that!?_" she yelled in panic.

"_Together!_"

**_RAWWWR!_**

"Oh my goodness, that's no ordinary Ursa," Blake muttered as she saw the beast standing on its hind legs with a roar like ten thousand men, "That thing has _four_ arms!"

But narrowing his eyes at the beast as it continued its immense display of animalistic bravado, Jaune snapped his head at the ravenette, "Blake! In many games when a boss appears, they give you a few seconds to scan it for any weaknesses before it engages - this may be our only chance to figure out how to kill it!"

Blake turned back wide-eyed at the giant monster, her breathing and heartbeat racing as she tried to think of what to do.

_KRRIIINNG..._

A flash of the first entry in her skill list window went through her mind as what felt like a cool breeze suddenly surrounded her, calming every stressed function in her body.

'Hmm... so _that's_ how a full dose of the Gamer's Mind works,' she internally observed as she took a deep relaxing breath to re-evaluate their situation.

According to Jaune, running wasn't an option. A boss would have to be defeated in order for the players to move forward... it made sense. So rationalizing a plan of action, she now knew what was the first thing she needed to do.

"_Observe!_"

* * *

**Ursa Rex LV34  
****HP: 15200 MP: 1200**

**A rare ancient Ursa full of hatred for humanity.  
****Mass mob Grimm killing causes the creature to come out of sinister hibernation to seek vengeance for its fallen brothers.  
****Having lived through countless battles, its hardened carapace is invulnerable to most conventional weaponry in every area except the main joints.  
****It has no aura but has immense strength and stamina. However, it is very slow and vulnerable to mana-based attacks.**

* * *

"Alright, got it!" Blake shouted as the mega-bear got on all sixes and prepared to charge them, "We aim for its joints!"

However, the knight tried to hold her back, unable to do so as she began sprinting towards the beast, "Blake, _wait!_"

But already at full sprint, Blake was already well past ear-shot when the Ursa struck first, the nimble catgirl flipping over the massive paw when suddenly the second paw from the same side glanced her side. However, due to its humongous size, the mere contact sent the ravenette flying across the clearing into a sizable tree at the edge of the meadow, shattering it completely.

"What on Remnant are these things made of, _styrofoam?_" she mumbled to herself as she slowly stood up from what could now be more aptly called a pile of mulch seemingly unscathed, trying to wave down Jaune who was running from the giant beast several dozen yards away, "Jaune, don't worry! I'm alright!"

"I _HIGHLY_ doubt that!" he yelled as he narrowly dodged another swipe from the raging beast on his tail, "Check your HP!"

Raising her brow for only a second in hesitation, Blake did as she was told, "Status Window."

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv13**

**...**

**HP: 263/600  
****MP: 315/450**

**...**

**STR: - 18 **_**+6.3 +**_

**VIT: - 30 _+10.5 +_**

**DEX: - 19 _+6.65 +_**

**INT: - 20 +**

**WIS: - 7 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 2  
****Money: 300 Lien**

* * *

"More than three hundred HP lost in _one hit!?_" Blake exclaimed as the harrowing reality of the health bar sank in, her Gamer's Mind being the only thing keeping her wits intact at the danger she was currently facing.

Her body had turned into that of a video game character. On the surface, it looked like she was indestructible, but knowing what the concept of a _Health Bar_ was, anyone would know how dire her situation would be should she receive another hit like that. With a single blue bar summing up her entire life force, Blake steeled her resolve as she mentally ensured that she would protect every precious health point she had left.

"A little help here, please!"

Her gaze shooting back to the fleeing blond, Blake sped off to his aid as the beast prepared another strike.

"Gah!" Jaune yelped as he suddenly tripped, the giant Ursa's top left fist in the air to deliver the strike when it saw its opportunity.

_WHOOOM!_

"_Power Strike!_"

_CLANG!_

And with a shower of pale blue energy sparks, Gambol Shroud completely deflected the Grimm's attack, the beast's fist flying back up with the recoil as the Ursa Rex itself roared in rage.

"Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike!"

_CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!_

Three more clashes between mana-buffed metal and bone resounded through the clearing as a glowing Blake blocked attacks from the Ursa's other three respective paws, the beast roaring with unbridled fury as it now raised its two top paws in the air for a double-pawed downward smash.

"Oww..." Jaune finally stood up and straightened out, rubbing his head before his eyes went wide at the Ursa's ulterior method behind its pending attack on the ravenette, "_Move_ Blake, IT'S A TRAP!"

But knowing she wouldn't be able to dodge the attack on time without her previous semblance, Jaune sprinted to her side as the Ursa Rex pulled one of its bottom fists back and delivered a mighty right hook on the pair.

_**BOOOOOM!**_

All Blake felt instead of the fatal impact was a familiar warm aura surrounding her when her entire body was jolted violently into an airborne trajectory, the wind knocked out of her when she and... something wrapped around her?... landed onto the ground and left a huge gouged mark on the meadow as they continued skidding for several dozen meters more.

She felt her body go cold when she stood up to see that it was Jaune himself underneath her who had taken the blow, the heavily bruised Arc's aura fading in its glow before his eyes fluttered open and he turned his head to her weakly.

"Bet you... didn't see that coming..."

His head rolled back, his eyes going shut as he let out a deep breath.

"No... nonono..." Blake began quickly, kneeling over him in growing despair as she tried to think of what to do. The Gamer's Mind was keeping her from spiraling out of control and bursting into tears right then and there over Jaune's still form, but what was she going to do? Her aura recovery skill could only heal 100 HP at a time and there wasn't going to be enough time to get him back to a fighting level before the Grimm was upon them once more!

Without her semblance's passive effects able to protect his body, Jaune was likely crippled now, unable to continue his fight or to even fend off the giant Grimm which wouldn't finish until he was no more than just a-

"Blake... Grk! _Blake_, you're shoving your knee into my ribcage!"

"Jaune!" the ravenette exclaimed with immense relief as she quickly moved away from the knight who slowly checked himself for injuries and sat up, "I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay, I was just taking a quick breather. I'm... I'm _fine_," he said with some surprise at his own words as he paused and stood up to their amazement, unscathed aside from his bruising, "Wow... uh, surprised?"

The catgirl nodded emphatically, her eyes watery as she let out a chocked chuckle at his pseudo-confident smirk.

"Yeah," he agreed with another once-over at his still-working body, "So am I."

"H-How'd you know you'd be able to take that hit?" Blake finally worked up to ask after swallowing the knot in her throat, to which the knight merely scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Um, that's the thing... I didn't."

Now standing as well to face him directly, her eyes flashing a bright amber as her wits were rekindled about her, she smacked the unsuspecting knight on the head... _hard_.

"Hey-YEOW!"

"Don't you _EVER_ go about scaring me like that again, Arc! You understand?" she hissed angrily, a finger pointed sternly at him as well.

"Uh... ow... um, yeah. I understand," he grimaced under a mix of pain from the Ursa and from the smack before glancing over the edge of the small crater they'd made to see the somewhat distant Ursa rapidly approaching, "Well... it found us again."

Turning to the Grimm with her eyes practically glowing in rage, Blake calmed herself to form her straight-forward plan.

_Charge_ the monstrous fiend...

And _kill_ it without mercy for having endangered her friend.

She was about to leap out into the open to rush the beast once more when Jaune's hand shot out to hold her back by the arm.

"Blake. RPG, remember?" he began with a small smile, "You may have a Gamer's Mind to help you think things through, but if you can't think like a _Gamer_, you'll still lose."

She slackened the tension between her arm and his hand as the Ursa Rex drew closer, "Then what do you suggest we do?"

"What do you know about it?"

"It's strong and resilient, its only weaknesses being its joints and its vulnerability to mana attacks."

"So what would you do with that knowledge?"

"Rush it and strike the joints," the catgirl replied flatly, fighting down her growing impatience, "My power strikes deal much more damage than my mana attacks."

"_No_," Jaune replied sternly, the sudden sharpness in his voice catching her off guard, "A boss like that? You'll kill yourself trying to hit moving targets so small without a firearm. No, you _distract_ it, _slow_ it down with mana attacks and _finish_ it with power strikes."

Blake nodded, her ex-operative instincts kicking in as she processed and accepted the new commands, "Understood."

"Which leaves you as the trigger lady. You stand back and shoot the marks as I distract the thing and call them out."

"What!?" the catgirl exclaimed in surprise, "But you can't take another hit out there!"

He cracked a sly smirk, not breaking eye contact with her as another roar signaled the beast's increasing proximity, "And neither can _you_."

Huffing in consent, she reluctantly nodded, crouching against the side of the dirt crater as she glanced at the knight, "On your mark."

"..."

"..."

**_ROARRR!_**

"GO!"

And leaping out of the crater in opposite directions, Jaune towards the beast and Blake away from it behind the rear crater wall, the knight landed and immediately rolled under the Grimm's first paw swipe before turning to Blake.

"Top right paw, _now!_"

The ravenette looked down at her hands, suddenly slapping herself mentally for never having taken the time to figure out how an energy bolt was actually fired. Was it from the fingers like Jaune had tried? Or maybe the fist? No no... Blake thought quickly with the Gamer Mind's aid back to her aura training in the White Fang - attacks were most deadly, not when the muscles were tense, but then they were relaxed... elastic so as to emit the greatest impact damage the moment they were needed.

"It must be through the palm!" she declared as she held out a now glowing hand, her target in clear sight as the energy built up within her on command, "_Energy Bolt!_"

_sss-POW!_

Blowing the beast's paw off entirely, the Ursa made the grave mistake of freezing in place and roaring angrily over its lost appendage.

"_Just_ like an in-game Mob Boss," Jaune quipped with a triumphant smirk before gripping Crocea Mors by the hilt and pooling his aura into his legs, "YAH!"

And with a nimble leap through the air, the knight delivered a powerful blow that took the arm clean off from the human-sized shoulder joint.

_**AAAARRGH!**_

Ducking under the next swipe from the opposite arm, Jaune did the same as before, "Top left paw, _now!_"

"_Energy Bolt!_" Blake yelled, the resulting mana blast hitting its mark and causing the beast to freeze again long enough for Jaune to repeat the action, "Oh my Oum... we're actually doing it..."

"Left leg, _now!_"

"_Energy Bolt!_"

**_GRAAAAAGH!_**

"Right leg, _now!_"

"_Energy Bolt!_"

_**GRRRAWWWR!**_

And readying her next mana attack, Blake was surprised to see Jaune pull back from the crippled beast and call out to her, "Get over here!"

"But I have enough MP for two more energy bolts!" she called back in reply, thinking he maybe wasn't sure if she had enough left to finish the job.

"_NO!_" he yelled back, his voice hoarse from the strain as the beast tried coming closer in its inhuman resolve to end the blonde's life, "We're gonna _finish_ it, so get your butt here _NOW!_"

Immediately leaping over her makeshift trench of a crater wall, Blake raced to Jaune's side as he dodged an awkward paw strike from the mutilated beast that had only two arms left, the knight wiping his heavily sweaty brow before laying out the final strike plan.

"Alright, you only have enough juice left in you for either two energy bolts _OR_ a Power Strike, and I don't think I have enough in me to finish it in one go. So here's what we're gonna do..."

And with a few more seconds of explanation, the pair separated, Blake making a run for it first towards the Ursa Rex's left side.

"_C'mon you ugly bastard, come get me!_" Blake yelled at the top of her lungs as the enraged beast tried and failed to swipe at her with its right paw, unbalancing it to once side.

"Huh... she really took it the extra mile," Jaune mused in surprise before making a break for it towards the Grimm's right side, "_Hey! Hey you, Yogi Bear! You're NOT smarter than the average bear, you know!_"

_**RAWWWR!**_

And without considering the consequences, the Ursa immediately tried lunging at the knight with its left paw which threw its entire hide off-balance and sent it tumbling to the floor while the students quickly took their places by the beast's mutilated top shoulder joints by its head.

As the beast struggled to pick itself up, a small space now visible underneath its neck, Jaune made the call, "_NOW!_"

Breaking into full sprints, Blake and Jaune raced towards the Ursa's exposed neck on either side of the beast, the knight drawing his blade upwards to slit the massive throat from underneath and Blake leaping through the air with Gambol pointed downwards towards the same joint before making simultaneous contact at opposite ends of their mark while yelling in unison.

**_"POWER STRIKE!"_**

_SSHHHRAK-BOOM!_

And with the stomach-churning sound of tearing meat and snapping bone and tendons, the entire head of the Ursa Rex came off in a blast of mist and the combined white and pale-blue auras of the students, the lifeless carcass falling between the panting Jaune and the powerful catgirl as she landed on the beast's other side.

Turning to glance at the knight, Blake smirked and slowly began making her way toward him as he did the same, limping and using Crocea Mors' blade as a crutch until both met at the spot where the Ursa's head used to be.

But before she could say anything to the blond, he merely dipped his head and raised his palm in the air in an almost reverent fashion.

"I... *_pant pant_* _request_... the _highest_ of fives."

The exhilaration of having survived such a massive Grimm finally setting in, Blake didn't even think twice about it before high-fiving the Arc with a satisfying _clap_, the two now making eye contact before they broke into laughter - a long, tired, joyful laughter that ended with them each on the ground almost side by side as they were unable to remain standing any longer.

"We did it," Jaune remarked as they each gazed at the few roaming overhead clouds that drifted across the open sky, the forest canopy providing shade from just a few dozen feet behind them.

"We did it," Blake echoed in satisfaction, reaching over and lightly patting Jaune's shoulderpad with a fist.

"You think we'll get good rewards out of this boss kill?"

"I'm not sure, it's my first time beating one," Blake mused as she turned her head to make eye-contact with the blonde beside her on the grassy meadow, "I'm sure the rewards notifications should be showing up at any momen-"

**_PING PING!_**

And right on cue, twin windows popped up over each students' heads, the message reading the same.

**[You've defeated the boss monster Ursa Rex.]**

**_PING PING!_**

**_PING PING!_**

**[You've gained 26250 EXP.]**

**[Your level has risen by 1.]**

Jaune lazily fist-pumped the air while Blake pretended to wave an imaginary banner, both students too weak to do much else at the moment.

"Woohoo..."

"Yayyy..."

But the next set of windows brought differing messages.

**_PING PING!_**

**[Your level has risen by 1.]**

The knight fist-pumped a second time as he read the window, "_Aha!_ I leveled up twice! Thank you Equal Distribution! What did you get Blake?"

"Uh, I'm... not quite sure."

**[You've received the title _Apprentice Grimm Hunter._]**

"Well what's it say?"

Blake turned to him, her nose crinkling slightly as she scrunched her brows in confusion, "It says I've received the title of... Apprentice Grimm Hunter?"

But instead of sharing her confusion as she had expected, Jaune's eyes lit up in awe as he began to whisper, "Your semblance gives you titles oh my Oum you're so cool..."

"Huh?"

"Um, nothing!" he quickly replied, shaking off the twinkling in his eyes before he could imagine a halo popping up on the ravenette's head or something, "It's a title. You see, a title system is a system that lets a game character get special abilities when using a nickname given by completing certain requirements. Equip it and see what it does!"

"Alright," Blake drawled as she slid the title onto her stats.

**_PING!_**

**[Apprentice Grimm Hunter]**

**-Obtained by killing any 50 Grimm.  
****-You have a special talent and interest in exterminating the creatures of Grimm!  
****-Become a Grimm Hunter and eradicate the creatures of Grimm!**

**30% increase in attack damage in attacking Grimm.  
****30% increase in defense in attacking Grimm.  
****All status plus 5 in attacking Grimm.**

Jaune watched Blake staring at the window slack-jawed before speaking up, "Is it good?"

"_Yeah_," she nearly squeaked in excitement with a wide smile, "I can feel it sinking into my system, making me stronger... let's just say I may no longer need Power Strike to one-shot a Grimm. Well, a Beowolf at least."

Her smile fell into a confused expression, however, when she heard the knight suddenly begin to chuckle, "What."

"Nothing," he replied simply, a small grin on his features as he continued, "I just think it's funny how quickly you're getting used to using gaming terms."

Blake rolled her eyes and quickly slapped the Arc's chest plate back-handedly as she retorted, "Oh _hush_, you."

They both chuckled at their easy-going banter before Jaune held up his fist at her side for a fist-bump, to which she reciprocated with a half-hearted grumble as she wasn't used to that kind of victory gesture just yet.

"Welp, we done good, partner," Jaune finally began as he lowered his fist before Blake slowly turned back to face him, his own face going blank as he realized what he'd said, "I mean, _Blake. _N-Not to say you're not a good partner or anything, but we each already have one, and-"

"Jaune, I get it," she spoke calmly, getting up on her side and propping herself on her elbow to face him, "We couldn't have made it through this without each other. For what it's worth, that sounds like _partners_ to me. Like a temporary alliance."

"...Or like a team-up!" the knight supplied with an excited grin, the ravenette raising a brow but nodding contentedly nonetheless.

"_I'd be the first to agree,_" a voice was suddenly heard from somewhere behind Blake, calm and vaguely electronic as it continued, "_You both have done VERY well today..._"

Trading a quick nod of understanding, Blake and Jaune simultaneously turned to the source of the voice as it concluded.

"..._very well indeed_."

* * *

**A/N:** _Hi there, **TPS** here! So, did you think things between Blake and Jaune were gonna get romantic so easily? Hopefully not! Cuz in the words of a favorite BlakexJaune author of mine, **"I'm aiming to make it a realistic pairing [...] So expect hormones, complication, frustration and denial. Not to mention drama, jealousy, and candid looks.****" **Okay, maybe not so much on the drama... ain't nobody got time fo' dat. Unless it's paired with action and seasoned with a side of my signature lame humor :)_

_I got to introduce Velvet, which was fun. I know she looks shy in the show but she seems like a decent conversationalist when talking to Ruby before the field trip, so I went with that._

_And an important thing. **Gamer's Mind**. It is **not** a cure-all nor does it come into effect immediately. Blake can still feel emotion - she **can** be startled, flustered and even afraid for some time before the skill kicks in to calm her down. Almost like a threshold of distress or something. Blake has a new semblance, not Alexithymia._

_Also, to answer a good question posted by a reviewer, I should probably set an expectation for **update schedules** and whatnot. Well... expect sporadic. I mean, it'll probably average out to two weeks between chapters, but that's just me setting the expectation low so that people are pleasantly surprised when I update the fic in two days instead of two weeks! But like I said, expect **sporadic**._

_That being said, feel free to **Fave, Follow and Review** to keep up with future updates and show your support, and **thanks** to all those who have already done so and especially to those who took the time to share their thoughts, ideas and critiques on the story. You guys are **awesome! **In the words of the late and great James Brown, **"I feel good!"**_

_Okay okay, I'll stop quoting stuff. _

_So in the words of the FFnet author **SavageDandelion** (oddly self-serving, I know): "Stay tuned for next chapter,_

_**And Happy Reading!**"_


	4. Debriefing

**_Debriefing_**

* * *

"_I'd be the first to agree. __You both have done VERY well today_..._very well indeed_."

On high alert, Blake and Jaune quickly got on their feet to search for the source of the strange voice, unable to find anything through the dense canopy from a few dozen feet away.

"Hey uh, Blake?" Jaune softly spoke sideways at the ravenette, getting her attention as he cautiously extended Crocea Mors.

"Yeah?"

"If your life has become a game... and monsters now spawn randomly... you don't think," he paused as he gulped and shakily finished his question, "t-that maybe things like Forest Trolls have become real _too_, d-do you?"

"_I assure you, they have NOT, Mister Arc..._"

With her enhanced Faunus hearing, Blake was immediately able to pinpoint the source of the sound among the trees, her gaze softening as she ascertained the identity of the voice. Jaune, however, had no such ability.

"It knows my name!" the knight yelped with a girlish squeak, the catgirl merely raising a brow in his direction, "Well I'm not _that_ easy to fool, vile creature! I _refuse_ to answer your riddles! ..._Or_ cross your bridges!"

A brief silence set into the area as Blake blinked incredulously at the knight, mentally facepalming as the voice continued.

"..._Vague references to Monty Python aside, I expect a thorough explanation when you return to campus, Miss Belladonna. I've already sent an automated passenger drone to your coordinates, and it seems you both shouldn't be encountering any further creatures of Grimm in the area until then._"

"Yes, Headmaster Ozpin."

Jaune's jaw dropped as he finally noticed the small holo-screen and mic embedded in a tree a few yards into the forest, turning back to the ravenette before she silently mouthed at him, _Are you crazy!?_

"As _if_ I would've known!" he shot back flatly, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

"Seriously?" Blake questioned with a raised brow after making sure the comm device in the tree had shut off, "_Forest Trolls._"

"It was a fair assumption," Jaune defended simply as he crossed his arms with a huff.

She shook her head at his antics with faint amusement, "Uh huh. Ozpin the Head Trollmaster... makes perfect sense. I think the Ursa may have given you a concussion or something..."

But ditching her sarcasm as a hint of worry overtook her at the possibility, she narrowed her eyes at the knight, "But speaking of which... _Observe_."

**_PING!_**

**[_Observe_'s level has risen by 1.]**

'That's nice,' Blake thought to herself before Jaune's status window popped up.

* * *

**Name: Jaune Arc  
****Class: The Knight****  
****Level: Lv9 _(Nxt lvl: 94.3%)_  
Rank: _D (Att: E | Def: E | Sem: S)_**

**...**

**HP: 497/20000  
****AP: 275/400**

**...**

**STR: 150 _-135 _**

**VIT: 235 _-211.5 _**

**DEX: 80 _-76 _**

**INT: 7 **

**WIS: 15 **

**LUK: 42 **

**...**

**Emotions: Relief. Contentment. Concern.**

* * *

'My goodness, he almost _died_ taking that hit for me. It likely would've killed most other people on the spot...' she thought with an internal gasp as she noticed his HP level.

"Uh, Blake? Everything okay?" Jaune asked worriedly as the catgirl suddenly began scrutinizing the window, her brows furrowed and lips pursed to the side as he realized she had a habit of doing.

"And it's... _different_..." she mumbled under her breath.

"Huh?"

"The status window content has changed," Blake now reiterated at normal volume, turning to face him as a question came to mind, "Jaune, would you say you're feeling... _relieved_... at the moment?"

He shrugged as he replied, "Considering that we just escaped a painful death at the paws of a giant Grimm, I'd say my reply would be a definite _yes_."

The ravenette's eyes widened, a small smile growing on her lips as the revelation dawned on her, "Jaune, I think my Observe skill is indeed beginning to show me more information regarding my target as its level rises. I can even see your emotional state now!"

"Wow! _That's_," the knight began exclaiming with growing excitement until it flatlined into a deadpan as he thought about it, "...kinda creepy, actually."

He paused to glance over at the still-disintegrating carcass of the giant Ursa, something catching his eye as Blake continued her examination of the status window, "And there's more information under your ranking system here, but I'm not too sure what to make of it quite yet-"

"Hey uh, Blake? You gonna pick that up?" Jaune interrupted, the girl's cat-ears perking up beneath her bow before she quickly glanced in his direction.

Closing the window as Jaune walked towards the nearly dematerialized Grimm corpse, Blake cocked her head to the side as he approached a few items clustered where the Ursa was slain.

Of course, curiosity turned into stupefied surprise as the two teens stared at what the items _were_. Blake was the first to break the stunned silence.

"Is that-?"

"I think it _is_..." Jaune replied slowly.

"...It's _money_."

Bending down, Blake then picked up the generous stack of lien and held it up to the sun to ensure its legitimacy, "It doesn't look counterfeit. Must be a couple thousand by the looks of it but I won't know until I count it."

"I can't believe it," the Arc drawled in disbelief with a hand at his head, "Real-life Boss drops... Blake, your semblance is _amazing!_"

Unable to fight down the warmth that rose up in her cheeks at the compliment, Blake quickly cleared her throat and responded as she pocketed the cash and looked back at the ground, "A-And what's _that?_"

"Hmm," he hummed as he bent down to pick up one of five flasks, swirling the viscous red liquid inside around until his eyes went wide in realization, "No _way_. It... it dropped _recovery potion,_ too!?"

"There's no such thing," Blake replied flatly, to which Jaune merely shook his head and thrust the flask into her hands.

"Oh yeah? Do your mind-scan thing and watch what happens."

Rolling her eyes as she took the flask, Blake focused on the foreign liquid, "_Observe_."

**[Lowest Grade Recovery Potion - Class: Normal]**

**A recovery potion. A lower-middle grade potion that instantly recovers 500 HP.  
****Tastes like strawberry.**

"Oh. My. Dust."

Blake continued to stare at the flask as her concept of the physical world continued to deteriorate around her. How could this be possible? It really _was_ as if video game elements were coming to life all around her... and now, questions about what other unexpected surprises could arise began sprouting in her mind before the one who would likely be able to answer them interrupted her musing.

"It _is_ what I thought it was, wasn't it!" Jaune exclaimed with overbrimming excitement, doing a fist-pump in the air as she slowly nodded at the window in reply.

"This... is supposed to be impossible," she spoke up, looking between the flask and the meadow as the Grimm beast was no longer to be seen, "Highly renowned scientists have only been able to make milliliters of aura-replenishing elixir at a time, each dose costing _thousands_ of lien. Not to mention that these very _real_ items came from a disintegrating _Grimm_, which otherwise never leaves anything behind upon death."

Nodding at the widely-known facts that they had been taught as Beacon students, Jaune explained, "I know that. But in an RPG, you can fight a _ghost_ and it will drop items for you to keep. Forget physics, this is the effect _your_ semblance now has on the world around you!"

"But-"

"Oh, and you forgot this," the knight interrupted once again as he handed her a small black book that he had picked up from the floor while she was examining the potion, "It doesn't have a title, but I guess you can try to see what you can figure out about it."

Taking the book in one hand with a gratified smile, Blake froze as she began to give him back the flask with her other one, looking up at him as she was struck with a thought, "Drink it."

Blinking at her in confusion for a moment, Jaune quickly shook his head as he declined the offer, "No way. Your boss drop, your loot."

"Jaune," she replied again, a rare pleading tone being heard in her voice, "Your HP is under five _hundred_, you _need_ it. Take it, and take two more to sell."

"Blake... I couldn't do that..."

"_Please_," she asked once more, surprising herself with how she had actually said that word for the first time since arriving at Beacon at all. But then again, it was for the boy who had just risked his life for her a second time, so she continued anyway, "We were working together when we took it down. _Team-up_, remember? Besides, I get to keep the cash anyway... and the last thing you'd want is to run out of funds to pay for tuition next year."

He let out a long sigh as he stared at the flask she was handing him before finally letting out a short chuckle, "You know, I've always had that fear of running out of cash and having to take a job at a coffee place or a club or something to make up for unpaid tuition... I have no idea why, though; my family has plenty of money..."

"But _still_... maybe for a little extra just in case?" Blake then asked, a small smile adorning her features as she offered her flask a little higher for him to take.

"_Gahhh_," he grumbled playfully as he shyly grinned at her persistent soft gaze, "_Fine_. How could I say no to that face!"

Uncorking the flask in his hand, Jaune now chugged the flask in one go, the glass container bottoms up before he finished it and smacked his lips, "Yum. Tastes like strawberry."

"Do you feel any different?" Blake asked in curiosity, to which he slowly began to nod.

"Yeah, actually. Try doing your observe thingy to check."

The catgirl shrugged before complying, "_Observe_."

* * *

**Name: Jaune Arc  
****Class: The Knight****  
****Level: Lv9 _(Nxt lvl: 94.3%)_  
Rank: _D (Att: E | Def: E | Sem: S)_**

**...**

**HP: 1147/20000  
****AP: 350/400**

**...**

**STR: 150 _-135 _**

**VIT: 235 _-211.5 _**

**DEX: 80 _-76 _**

**INT: 7 **

**WIS: 15 **

**LUK: 42 **

**...**

**Emotions: Curiosity. Contentment. Admiration.**

* * *

The catgirl read through the stats, displaying an impressed reaction at the numerical changes but choosing to withhold the information she gathered about his emotional state as another light blush led to a checked smile on her lips.

"Your health has improved immensely," she began warmly, having regained her composure as he waited for more info, "The five hundred HP has certainly been recovered, along with about a hundred fifty more that I believe your aura has healed in the past minute or so. That's really something, Jaune..."

"Heh, thanks," he chuckled while sheepishly scratching the back of his head, about to continue when a low revving sound was heard overhead, "I guess the transport is here."

And sure enough, what could be described as a much smaller version of a Bullhead appeared over the forest canopy, a mechanical camera mounted on the cockpit in the shape of an eye spotting them before the miniature aircraft settled on the meadow grounds a few yards away from the pair.

"Hmm, if only we didn't have so much stuff to carry," Blake hedged as she tried bending down to pick up the remaining flasks to no avail, giving Jaune a sudden idea.

"Wait a sec," he began as the side door to the small craft opened to reveal four empty seats within, two on each side facing each other, "Have you thought of trying to open an inventory window or something?"

"Inventory window?"

"Yeah," Jaune replied coolly, "A menu where you can stash or otherwise stockpile resources or other items. Almost every RPG has something like that."

Blake thought about the practicality of such a system for a second before shrugging, "Well I suppose that would make sense if items are becoming as commonplace as they seem to be. It's worth a shot... _Inventory_."

**[Inventory]**

**_Equipment_**

**|...| O |...|  
****|...| /X\ |...|  
****|...| /\ |...|**

**_Weapons_**

**|...| |...|**

**|...| |...|**

**_Items_**

**|...| |...|**

**|...| |...|**

Blake stared with increasing curiosity at the blank window now floating in front of her, an image of her body surrounded by empty boxes next to two other sets of empty boxes under separate categories.

"It worked."

"Nice," the knight replied with a large grin, picking up the remaining flasks and handing them to her, "Take my potions too for the moment, and try putting them all in!"

She blinked at the objects as she took them, carefully cradling the heap of items in her arms as she looked back at the window under some duress. But reaching to pick out one of the flasks, she held it out hesitantly toward the window as she considered how exactly it worked in the first place.

'Could it really be that simple?...'

Her thought lingered for a moment before she decided to simply press the flask into an empty box, both she and Jaune taken aback by the sudden flare of light that overtook the item before it vanished completely and wide smiles grew on both their faces. And after only seconds more, all the items - along with the book - were hastily placed in the newly-discovered inventory function.

_FLASSH-FLASSH-FLASSH!_

**[Inventory]**

**_Equipment_**

**|...| O |...|  
****|...| /X\ |...|  
****|...| /\ |...|**

**_Weapons_**

**|...| |...|**

**|...| |...|**

**_Items_**

**|Recovery Potion _x4_| |Unknown Item _x1_|**

**|...| |...|**

"Alright, this is becoming fairly interesting," Blake noted lightly with a small grin as she followed Jaune into the aircraft, the doors closing behind them as they took seats across from each other and strapped themselves in, "I figure storing Gambol in here should work via the same principles..."

She unsheathed her weapon and carefully pressed it into the window tip first.

_FLASSH!_

**[Inventory]**

**_Equipment_**

**|...| O |...|  
****|...| /X\ |...|  
****|...| /\ |...|**

**_Weapons_**

**|Gambol's Sheath| |...|**

**|...| |...|**

**_Items_**

**|Recovery Potion _x4_| |Unknown Item _x1_|**

**|...| |...|**

"Hammerspace," Jaune finally stated, snapping Blake out of her awed musing as the mini-bullhead took off toward the academy.

"What?"

"_Hammerspace_," he reiterated with a small smile, "It's a sub-dimensional storage solution used in many games where a character can keep nearly infinite amounts of items to pull out of thin air at a moment's notice. Apparently it's another function your semblance has."

Blake looked back at the window with a growing smirk, "I'd say so... it even has a thumbnail of me surrounded by available equipment boxes. It seems I can store whole outfits in here as well!"

"Heh! My sisters would _kill_ for an ability like that!" the Arc chuckled lightly at his companion, "Clothes, weapons, items... Hey, I bet you can put the money in there too!"

Her brows shot up at the mention, Blake nodding in agreement as she reached down and pulled out the wad of lien from her side pouch, "Good idea!"

_FLASSH!_

However, elation slowly turned to confusion when the money disappeared into the window with no discernible change in the viewable data. Cocking her head to the side, Blake tried to make sense of it.

'Wait... the money just disappeared because it must show up somewhere else. But where have I seen money information displayed before? ...Ah. I know.'

She closed the window with a reassuring smile at Jaune before speaking up, "_Status Window._"

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv14**

**...**

**HP: 343/700  
****MP: 445/500**

**...**

**STR: - 18 **_**+1.8 +**_

**VIT: - 30 _+3 +_**

**DEX: - 19 _+1.9 +_**

**INT: - 20 +**

**WIS: - 7 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 2  
****Money: 500,300 Lien**

* * *

"_Gah!_" the catgirl suddenly exclaimed, startling the knight as he saw her eyes go wide, "A single Mob Boss drops five hundred _thousand_ lien!"

Jaune's reaction was rather similar as he went bug-eyed as well, "_What!?_ Y-You'll get filthy rich at this rate if you keep facing bosses like that! Not to mention that we've probably been missing smaller drops from the Beowolves this whole time!"

"This semblance is incredible," Blake finally drawled as her eyes remained glued to the numerical stat before she slowly looked up at the ecstatic Arc, "Jaune, this semblance is _actually_ incredible."

There weren't many things in the world that Blake Belladonna found truly fascinating. Books, nature, and tuna comprising the fairly short list. But this, this was beginning to become a wonder all in a league of its own...

As far as Blake could tell, there seemed to be no limit to how strong she could get, for starters. Also, there didn't seem to be any limit to the skills she could learn, as it seemed that a repeated action could potentially turn into a skill that could be grinded into mastery. And finally, she had an entire storage system she could summon on a whim, immensely practical and infinitely capable as an arsenal all in itself.

Of course, she still had her questions as was oft her habit. Had there been any record of this semblance class before? What would she be capable of with continued grinding? And where was all this new information provided to her about her surroundings coming from?

"Pfft, and I bet you're barely scratching the surface," Jaune remarked, unwittingly replying even to her current internal musing as well.

Either way, she felt that at least a few of those questions were about to be answered as the aircraft approached Beacon and she saw the placid form of Headmaster Ozpin on the landing pad. Finally touching down, the two teens stood as the side bulkhead door opened downward to reveal the Professor calmly sipping coffee from his ever-present mug with his cane in his other hand.

The engines spooled down as the students waited expectantly for the Headmaster's first action, his unreadable gaze drifting from the knight to the ravenette for a moment more before he spoke up.

"On the eve of this fine day, here I was, beginning to go about my task of monitoring the campus and ensuring the well-being of the student body when I unexpectedly receive an alert that one of the motion-sensing cameras we use during initiation has been activated in the Emerald Forest. I enter my office to activate the live feed, and lo and behold, I find two students engaged in a battle the likes of which have not been seen since the Great War... so now I must inquire... do either of you know what you just killed this morning?"

Blake tried her best to read past his impassive gaze, but either her observation level simply wasn't high enough or this man truly had the best poker face the catgirl had ever encountered. And this coming from a girl who had spent years in an organization where its members wore face masks.

In her moment of meditation, however, it was Jaune who tried to answer first, "Uhh... I think it was..."

"Ursa Rex," Blake finished flatly, the Professor's gaze serenely darting back to her as he shifted his stance ever so slightly on his cane.

'His first tell,' she remarked internally with some measure of victory, 'He wasn't expecting us to know that.'

He passively hummed as he took another sip of coffee, his gaze remaining trained on the Faunus-girl before he replied, "Hmm. Very good. And I must admit, it was a very impressive counter-offense you both mounted at the end... how did you know how to defeat an Ursa of that class?"

Onice again, it was Jaune who tried to answer with a small shrug, "Luck, I guess?"

Blake could immediately tell something change deep within the Headmaster's countenance, a small spark igniting behind his eyes like a Hunter about to corner his prey as he turned his attention to the knight.

"Miss Belladonna, Mister Arc... you may know the identity of the creature you fought today, but it seems you are both entirely unaware of the magnitude of what you've accomplished with your feat. _Thousands_ of warriors died during the Great War trying to rid the kingdoms of high-ranking Grimm like Ursae Rex, which is how - and _why_ \- the four-Hunter team formation was developed to successfully engage Grimm of this caliber. Only once in all of recorded history has an Ursa Rex been lain to waste so quickly by a team of only _two _ever since the Great War itself."

He paused as he noticed the jaws of both teens slackening a bit before finishing, "So once again, I ask of you, how exactly did you know how to slay a Grimm whose general anatomy and structure isn't even taught at this academy until your third year of training?"

Blake was in shock. Not only did she have no idea that such a high-ranking Grimm wouldn't even be _included_ in their curriculum for another two years, but she couldn't believe - couldn't rationally _explain_ \- that she and _Jaune Arc_ of all people were the first pair to defeat a Grimm of that caliber in decades. Moreover, this man had seen her in action - which meant he likely already knew about her mana-attacks. So Blake decided that coming clean would soon be inevitable.

The silver-haired Headmaster merely observed as the ravenette turned to the Arc with a questioning expression, his only reply being an uncertain shrug and a short nod before she turned back to face himself with a determined glare.

"Sir," she began, capturing his full attention, "I was provided this information through a status system I obtained yesterday. There was an accident in the pavilion where we defended Vale against the Grimm breach, and my body was infused with large quantities and varieties of Dust, an accident which seems to have altered my perceptive abilities of my surroundings."

He let his mug-holding hand slowly drop to the same level of his cane, surprising the students as the faintest of smirks grew on his otherwise stoic features while questioning, "Then you're telling me, that you received information you've never either studied nor heard of through a notification system you obtained from an accident involving dust infusion?"

"Correct," was Blake's immediate reply.

He hummed again, his subtle nuances a mystery even to the keen catgirl as he nodded and turned to walk away. Jaune and Blake traded a quick uncertain glance before following the Professor who spoke up as soon as they caught up to him.

"I'm not sure whether or not there is such a thing as a Divine Being," the Professor began, his gaze facing forward as the two students glanced at him with quizzical glares, "There are those who believe we were created by the Omniscient Monty Oum and those who don't. But the fact is, there can be no doubt that I, yourselves, and our world couldn't have come about by chance. This is why I believe things like chance, and _luck_, can hardly explain the things that happen around us."

"Then... Do you know what's happening to me?" Blake asked uncertainly, almost hopefully, as the three neared the central clock-tower spire of the campus.

"No," the Headmaster replied flatly, "Not exactly, at least. You see, years of study, war, and life have taught me that there may be a power... a _will_, so to speak... that surrounds this very planet and links our auras in ways we do not understand. This, however, is a theory that has met multiple levels of agreement and objections from among certain colleagues and the Valean Council - mostly the latter - but it's a theory I now believe to be truer than ever."

"What do you mean?" Jaune asked as the three now reached an elevator at the ground floor of the tower, the Professor reaching out with his cane and pushing the button before taking another sip of coffee and then speaking up.

"Blake's _ability_," he explained coolly, "is evidence that such a global force truly exists. Among Huntsmen, auras and our abilities to use them receive ranks. These you will learn about next year. But this ranking system measures both the potential and the range of a Hunter's aura along with their combat ability. Most aura-wielders can manipulate their auras in such a way that affects them and objects around their immediate vicinity in terms of offensive and defensive combat; these abilities receive ranks between the letters _E_ and _A_, the latter being the strongest."

The elevator touched down with a _ding_, the Professor pausing as the doors opened and the three stepped in, Jaune and Blake at his sides as the three faced forward and the doors closed before he continued.

"However, there are a special few whose auras become capable of not only affecting themselves, but of the auras of those around them... able to create and destroy in ways that still confound most of Remnant's scientific community to this day. These... natural ability users... receive what's called _Shinin_ ranking auras - or _S_ rank, for short."

Blake's eyes widened as the information began to sink in, "So what you're saying is-"

"That somehow, the world _itself_ is aiding you through your ability," Ozpin declared conclusively, a heavy silence momentarily befalling the rising elevator before he continued, "Through the energy of Hunters before you and the knowledge of generations past, you're being taught by Remnant's aural force about your targets. I'm saying that _you_, Miss Belladonna, have transcended into a Shinin Ranking Huntress."

Her mouth in a small _O_ of shock as she glanced at Jaune, Blake didn't need her observation skill to tell he was looking at her like some sort of goddess at this point. As the elevator ground to a halt, Ozpin - who despite himself looked calm as always - took another sip of coffee and stepped out as soon as the doors opened.

This, of course, left the students in a whole new level of awe as they were now faced with the striking intricacy that was Ozpin's office. Blake could still recall her team hounding Ruby about it earlier that year after her post-dance visit to the same room, yet it was about what had transpired in said office and not its incredible design. As a matter of fact, even if Ruby _had_ tried to describe it, the ravenette was quite positive that the explanation would not have done the sight justice.

At first glance, it felt like the two teens had been shrunken to the size of insects and dropped into the giant maw of a grandfather clock. Ticking gears of all sizes spun methodically along every wall, column and surface underneath a thick glass covering, the entire framework undoubtedly powering the clock and beacon that sat just over their heads at the top of the tower.

Ozpin couldn't help a smile at the two students who stood nearly back to back as they gawked at their surroundings, taking his seat behind his gear-laden desk before pouring himself another cup of coffee and speaking up.

"Now. As much as I'd like to talk about your new semblance, Miss Belladonna... I first wanted to touch on your choice in Mister Arc as a hunting partner."

Blake immediately spun her head towards the smug Professor, a brief expression of panic flitting across her features before replying.

"What."

Having missed the previous interaction in his admiration of the office, Jaune quipped at the ravenette, "What?"

"What," Blake repeated as she tilted her head indicatively at the increasingly amused Professor, which only managed to get the Arc to think that they were in trouble and deadpan with worry.

"_What_."

Hiding a smirk behind a sip of the fresh brew, Ozpin now stepped in to get the attention of each confused student, "Exactly my point. You see, _apart_, no one would even fathom the notion... But _together_, you two... have a fairly interesting dynamic. As a matter of fact, I'm rather surprised you both didn't become partners during initiation."

The mere thought of it caused the catgirl to furrow her brows, immediately rationalizing the most logical answer to such an unexpected statement, "Jaune and I landed in different parts of forest."

"And _I_ was busy being nailed to tree," Jaune added nonchalantly, causing Blake to snap her head at him with her brow raised in question about his continually dismal use of words.

"Um," she was about to protest with a finger raised until a mental image of him and Pyrrha in the forest playing out a scene from _Ninjas of Love _flashed through her mind, causing her to slowly put her finger down with a slight blush, "...Never mind."

"And besides," Jaune continued, evidently off-put by Ozpin's statement as well, "Even if Blake and I _would've_ become partners, who would've been our teammates? _Ruby and Weiss?_ Our team name would be terrible. SABR for _Saber_, JBRS for _Jabbers_, AWBR for _Auburn? ..._It'd be awful!"

Ozpin merely blinked at the knight, making a brief mental note to remember some of those names for a future team before setting his mug down on the desk. The amusement was becoming too much for him to handle.

"Very well," he conceded, clasping his hands in front of him as he fought down the urge to chuckle at the interesting pair, "I sense that your unexpected compatibility is a question that will be answered in due time. Changing the subject, then, I did have a another question about the weapon you used to help defeat the Ursa, Miss Belladonna."

Blake blinked as she processed the inquiry, pursing her lips to the side as she realized there was only one answer she could give, "It... wasn't a weapon. My semblance has granted me the use of mana-based attacks, a skill which I have yet to fully comprehend."

Of course, she left out the part about her lack of understanding being due to the fact that it was an element fount in video games. Nevertheless, the hint of surprise now on the Headmaster's face perplexed both students as Ozpin echoed, "Mana? You're saying the energy you were emitting was pure _mana?_"

Jaune was now the one cocking his head to the side in confusion as he asked, "Yeah. You know about it?"

"Aside from the occasional video game reference, for which it was named after due to its highly offensive capabilities," Ozpin now explained with a more solemn air about him, "I can assure you that _mana_ is indeed a very real substance. However, we know very little about it ever since its relatively recent discovery after the Great War - many are still not even sure whether it's aura-enhanced Dust or Dust-enhanced aura - but you say you can manipulate this substance freely, Miss Belladonna?"

Blake thought it through before nodding, "To a certain extent, yes. I'm quite new to the skill myself."

His clasped hands went from the table to his chin as he leaned forward on the desk, examining the ravenette as if sizing her up once more, "A very interesting semblance indeed..."

"So mana... is actually a thing?" Jaune asked, wanting to ensure clarification from the Professor who promptly nodded.

"Yes, it is. A very _powerful_ 'thing'. The Atlesian military along with the Schnee Dust Company have been experimenting with it for a few years now - doubtlessly, you've both seen the sudden spur in mechanical creativity and engineering that has been brought about in the past five years or so... each with mana at the root of their designs."

"So it's like a power source," Blake observed stoically, trying to piece together what she had seen about the Paladin and subsequent White Fang weaponry.

"Correct, and being such a universal power supply with such offensive potential, both entities have kept knowledge of its existence to as bare a minimum as possible lest others with less than noble intentions catch wind of this substance," Ozpin explained further, answering Blake's internal question as well.

"I think they already have," the catgirl mumbled to herself with concern before finishing her thought in mind, 'I'll have to inform my team as soon as possible. Roman might not have been after Dust, but after _mana_ this whole time!'

"That being said," Ozpin now continued unexpectedly, interrupting Blake's musing, "That brings me to the final reason I have brought you to my office today."

The students focused on the Headmaster as he now stood up with cane in hand, coffee left forgotten on the desk.

"I was going to decline the request, but the Valean Police Department has begun an investigation into the breach here in the city along with a few teams of Atlesian scientists. Being that Roman Torchwick is in custody and any immediate threat has been neutralized, they have forgone their usual request for fully-fledged Hunters and have asked instead for teams comprised of Hunters-in-training."

Jaune raised a brow at the Professor, "And about that request...?"

"They asked for each of your teams," Ozpin now revealed, "By name. They are convinced that you eight are the best options for the protection for their men due to your familiarity with the incident and your proven capability to hold off any unexpected incursions should they arise. However, in light of your newly-found ability, Miss Belladonna, that is a choice I now leave up to Mister Arc and Miss Rose as soon as she replies to my message."

Jaune and Blake, who both stood beside the desk as the ravenette held her arm with the other by the elbow across herself, turned to each other with a meaningful gaze. Jaune was the first to speak up.

"You'll have to tell them if you haven't already."

"I know," Blake replied, her eyes breaking contact with his as she looked at the floor, "But are you sure you're up to it? You haven't healed completely."

"Meh. I've been through worse."

A stare from the ravenette.

"Okay, maybe not _worse_... but I can manage," Jaune restated with an easy-going grin, "And I know our teams would be up for it as well. There are too many questions left unanswered and I think everyone would like an opportunity to find out more of why this happened."

The Headmaster watched the interaction with an unreadable expression on his face aside from the faint smirk on his lips as the amber-eyed girl softened her gaze at the knight and slowly nodded, to which Jaune smiled and turned back to the Professor.

"Alright sir, what do we need to do."

If the previous statement to Blake wasn't enough, it was his calm demeanor in the face of their first mission that began to impress the silver-haired man himself. But not that he'd show it. He smiled internally at the boy's developing skills as a leader and Huntsman as he bent down and pulled out a black dossier from below the desk... for more reasons than one.

"Very well," Ozpin now began with a steeled tone in his voice, no longer as a Professor but as a fellow Huntsman as well, "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to protect and to aid the combined Valean and Atlesian teams as they investigate the Breached Pavilion, making your way through the collapsed tunnels and clearing out any Grimm you find along the way back to the underground city of Mountain Glenn."

He placed the dossier on the desk and slid it to within Jaune's reach, the blonde now picking it up and briefly scanning the contents before glancing back at the Headmaster with a confirmatory nod.

"Sounds good. I tentatively accept on behalf of team JNPR, and will wait on Ruby's reply to share the information with our teams," he then turned to the ravenette with a smug grin that she couldn't help but reciprocate, "Besides, a week off sounded too boring anyway."

"Excellent," Ozpin now concluded as he turned to face the wall-to-wall window behind him that overlooked most of the campus, implicitly ending the conversation, "I'll wait for your final decision and will provide a bullhead as soon as you're ready. Good luck."

"Yes _sir_," Jaune replied with a salute before he and Blake turned back to go to the elevator.

However, barely a few steps were taken before he was stopped by a soft pressure on his arm holding him back. He turned to see a curious expression in Blake's eyes, which now turned towards the Headmaster as she spoke up quietly.

"There's one more thing I wanted to try before we left..."

He waited as she focused on the man who had his back to them, willing her passive observation senses to read the information she had previously found floating on her head and on Jaune's. It only took a blink or two before it finally came up.

**|The Headmaster|  
****LV? Ozpin**

'_What!?_'

* * *

**A/N:** _Hi there, **TPS** here! Yes, it's a little shorter of a chapter than previous ones, but it felt like a good place to end it. And next chapter is gonna be a long one, so don't get too disappointed if it takes a while to post ;) Let's just say that interesting things will happen to Jaune once he hits level 10..._

_Other than that, I hope some of your questions about boss drops have also been answered! Trust me, if I'm leaving out something obvious, it means I have plan for it later... most of the time ^.^ But I do make mistakes - as I mentioned, I'm not as big an RPG buff as I'd like to be - and I really appreciate the little things that people point out about the Gamer aspects of the fic! For example, the principle behind core stats meeting prerequisites pointed out by **Arkman** and **lukefang**, very helpful! **Thanks, guys :D**_

_And once again, thanks for all your kind words and support - breaking **300** followers was certainly motivation to get myself to finish this chapter on the pronto as well haha :) **Side note:** hehe, and yes, there are many references to fics and other stuff I like! And another thing... would you guys mind if I made Blake lapse in moments of total Trolling? After all, it's a Gamer semblance and their users have been known to get a bit a cocky at times, heh. It's a bit OOC but I think it'd be fun!_

_So as always, **Fave, Follow and Review** to show your continued support as it's always appreciated and your reviews continually help me improve as the amateur writer that I am ~ please notice me, Rooster Teeth senpais! ~_

_*ahem* Anyways, more to come as the remaining members of teams RWBY and JNPR (and a few others hehe) are tossed into the fray, where the shopping centers sell butt-whoopings in bulk and the light at the end of the tunnel is NEVER a good thing! Until then, take care!_

_**And Happy Reading!**_


	5. Level Ten

**_Level Ten_**

* * *

Jaune Arc wasn't one to consider himself a guy with problems. Sure, he had his social obstacles along with his physical combat ones as well, not to mention the whole cheating thing he'd undergone to get into Beacon in the first place. But he had been working on those things, and just today it seemed like all three seemed smaller than ever. But despite it all, he currently had, in all certainty, a _problem_.

"So what'd you do?~ C'mon, tell us!"

No, it wasn't the fact that he had been hounded by his team as soon as he had stepped out of the elevator, three smiling faces waiting expectantly for clarification after a certain crimsonette had knocked on team JNPR's dorm earlier to inform them that their leader had just visited the principal's office and had some important news for them.

"What'd you do? What'd you _dooo~_" Nora continued gleefully as the two teams began making their way out to the main courtyard, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet until calmed by a hand on her shoulder from a smiling Ren who merely glared at her pointedly in his universal way to get her to tone it down a notch. Or several.

"Nora. He already told us."

"Psh! No way, that's _way_ too boring a reason to get sent to the Headmaster's office!" she protested with a pout, the two teams now approaching the large brazen statue - the Great War memorial - that adorned the courtyard.

"On the contrary," Pyrrha spoke up with an amiable laugh as she walked beside the knight with her hands behind her back, just close enough to him that they'd brush shoulders every few steps, "An opportunity for a first-year team to go on an unsupervised mission sounds _grand!_"

"Meh," the Valkyrie hummed as the four students came to a stop with a finger to her chin in thought, team RWBY just behind them halting as well in their own conversation, "I _still_ don't think it's a good enough reason, especially when he was brought into the office with a _girl! _So tell me Jaune-Jaune, what'd you _dooo?~_"

At that, Jaune furtively craned his neck over his partner's shoulder to catch a glimpse of team RWBY, who seemed to be hounding their fourth member in much the same manner as he at the moment.

Yes, Jaune Arc currently had a problem. And that particular problem went by the name of Miss Blake Belladonna.

Now, the problem obviously wasn't for the reason that his teammate was implying, however. No, what was currently vexing the blonde knight was how quickly the ravenette had reverted to her usual self the moment she caught sight of their teams. As if the two students were oil and water, Blake had placed a fair distance between them both before he could even realize, naturally separating the two to be questioned by their respective teams. But it wasn't just that.

Everything about the girl he had seen opening up to him that morning seemed to disappear, her impassive attitude and quaint manner of speaking returning as if nothing had ever changed since the day before.

"Jaune."

Turning his head back to face his stoic teammate who had just called him, Jaune then glanced at Pyrrha who also turned her head to team RWBY and back as if trying to see what he had been checking with a concerned expression of her own.

"Is everything alright?"

He shuffled nervously, trying to come up with the least revealing answer lest Blake wish to keep the morning's events private.

"Yeah, um... you see, I-"

But sure enough, he was interrupted by the appearance of a certain hand that shoved itself between a surprised Ren and Pyrrha directly at him.

"Scroll."

Jaune glanced unsurely at his fellow blonde who waited for the device, taken aback at the unexpected request.

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry, did I _stutter?_" Yang replied without missing a beat, the tone in her voice clearly the protective elder sister one as she glanced pointedly at her outstretched hand while his teammates instinctively took a step away from the rapidly heating brawler.

Reaching into his pocket, he gave Yang the requested device, the fiery blonde taking a step back to be joined by Weiss just outside his team circle to go through it. As the general air of tension slowly started growing while the two girls exchanged inaudible whispers at the screen, Jaune was somewhat surprised to see an equally concerned Ruby trying to peek at his scroll from every angle, speeding from one side of the girls to the other trying to get a glimpse before speeding behind them and tip-toeing to get a look from between their shoulders.

And in all honesty, he didn't know whether to feel increasingly frustrated or flat-out relieved that Blake was just standing at the side, nonchalantly checking her weapon without deigning his team so much as a glance. Which... was actually normal for Blake... but from the Blake _he_ had seen that morning? Hardly.

"'Kay, Vomit Boy, looks like your alibi checks out," Yang stated conclusively as she handed him back his scroll, "I guess you _were_ called to Ozpin's for a mission, after all."

"What else would it have been for?" Ren retorted pointedly, his eyes narrowed at the offending brawler who had just forced her way into his leader's privacy.

An understandable reaction, Jaune thought, but that question was beginning to become something he'd rather not have answered with this situation as it was. But then Weiss happened.

"The heinous _defilement_ of our teammate and partner, _that's_ what!" the icy heiress heatedly quipped, the knight now finally seeing a reaction from the otherwise detached catgirl in the form of a light blush.

"Honestly, I'm just a little confused that Ozpin would've called you with Blake instead of... you know... _me_," Ruby added as well, Jaune a little perplexed at his fellow leader who currently couldn't seem to make eye contact with him as she absent-mindedly poked her index fingers together.

"I'm sure it was a coincidental circumstance," Pyrrha stepped in, briefly shooting her frazzled leader a reassuring smile before continuing his defense, "From what I gathered, you had been in your dorm room all morning, Ruby. Blake was likely nearby when Jaune was invited to the office and requested to be present as a representative of your team."

As the three ladies exchanged questioning glances, Jaune turned to mouth a silent _thank you_ at his beaming partner before taking the reins.

Clearing his throat, he now spoke up, hoping to the powers above that his voice didn't crack under the stress, "S-Speaking of which, Ozpin asked us to let him know as soon as our teams came to a decision. Does this mean you and your team are willing to come with us?"

The crimsonette stared at him with her large silver orbs for a moment before giving a quick nod, shyly returning her gaze to the floor as he whipped out his scroll to send the Headmaster the confirmatory message. Not even ten seconds passed before the reply came in with a buzz.

_Ozpin: Excellent. I will inform the VPD and have transport prepared at the main landing pad for your teams in thirty minutes. Good luck._

Ruby glanced down at her own scroll before looking up at her team resolutely, breaking her sister's protective demeanor and Weiss' action of glaring daggers at the knight as she spoke up.

"Alright guys, looks like we got thirty minutes to get to the landing pads. I think we've got things cleared up enough for now, so let's gear up and head out."

Team JNPR nodded in agreement, glad the tension was finally cut as Weiss begrudgingly nodded as well, Yang now walking over to her silent partner and pulling her in for a somewhat unwelcome side hug.

"And _I_ have to take _you_ to the forge, kitty! I'm surprised you've lasted a whole morning with only half your weapon on hand... wherever the other half is, that is..."

A little panicked as he realized that Blake had left Gambol's sheath in her inventory, Jaune's panic turned to dismayed disillusion as the ravenette replied flatly, "It's not like this morning was very eventful."

His jaw slack with the shock from her response, Jaune was unwittingly snapped out of it when he felt his partner's hand on his shoulder, "You fortunately have your gear already, Jaune. You should have some lunch while you wait for us."

He sighed before nodding dejectedly, the students all quickly going their separate ways and leaving him in front of the statue alone.

"This really _sucks_."

* * *

"Gotta say, you gave us a scare today, Blakey~" Yang cooed as she opened the door to the school's ample forge building, Blake rolling her eyes as she stepped in.

"Did I now?"

"Yep, but it helped that Weiss mentioned she'd seen you at the library and told us you weren't running away or anything. She actually seemed okay with it all... until she found out you'd been called to the office with _Jaune_ of all people! It's rare - even for Weiss - to turn such a deep shade of red, y'know..."

Blake raised a brow and scoffed as the girls walked down the long end of the large L-shaped building, rows of armor of differing types and abilities lining the walls on one side while all manner of weapons and arms adorned the wall on the other. As they made their way towards the crux of the building, the armor and weaponry seemed to become more intricate and complex until finally reaching the bend, at which the brawler spoke up.

"And here we are!~"

With a majestic gesture to the short end of the building which Blake had already seen at least a dozen times, the ravenette turned to face a massive forge taking up most of the area, a steel counter barring access to the forge itself as a single blacksmith worked on a shield over it.

Yang grinned at the blacksmith who wore a splotched white tshirt and black jeans under a heavy black welder's apron and matching welding mask.

"Hey Vin, you got the stuff?"

Turning to face the brawler, the blacksmith approached the counter and lifted his mask revealing a young man with strong but balanced facial features, a tan complexion complimenting his grey eyes as he smirked at the blonde.

"Express commission, as ordered," he began, bending under the counter and pulling out the familiar bladed half of the ballistic chain scythe to place on top of it, "You got the payment? Guy's gotta eat, y'know."

Blake watched with vague intrigue as her partner smirked and shook her head, reaching into her side pouch and pulling out a bag filled with berries to give to the young man who was likely their senior by less than a year.

"Three dozen, as promised... ya fattie."

"Oho, that's the stuff!" he hummed as he took the bag, Blake noting that those were the berries Yang enjoyed as well as she recalled her usual habit of having Nora chuck them at her from across their tables, "And for the record, I'm totally not fat."

"_Pfft_, keep eating like you do and you'll regret it!~" she replied with a teasing tone, the blacksmith merely raising a brow at the remark.

Moving his apron to the side, Vin looked down and lifted the hem of his torn shirt to reveal grease-stained but otherwise perfectly formed abs, "Uhh, _nope_. I think I'm good."

Her eyes minutely widening at the abs that could definitely rival Sun's, Blake turned with a smirk to face the evidently entranced brawler, "Yang, I think he's good."

"You know," Vin now continued with a mellow smile at Yang as he propped his elbows on the counter, "When you came to me yesterday with such an expedited request for such a beat up blade, I almost thought you'd be desperate enough to ask me on a date in return."

Blinking once or twice more to snap herself out of her trance, Yang quickly resumed her confident smirk as she crossed her arms under her head-turning endowments, "As _if_, I bet you worked all night on Gambol hoping for it~"

"I did," he replied smiling without missing a beat, causing her smirk to falter for just a moment as she unwittingly bit her lip.

"Well, that's a long line you'd have to wait in to have a chance, buddy," Yang retorted as she idly ran a hand through her hair, "And I'm not even sure you could handle all of this! But hey, I'm sure that under all those grease stains and welding gear you're actually a pretty good-looking guy."

Brushing off the back-handed compliment with finesse, he merely replied, "And_ I'm _sure that once you take off those glasses and ridiculously scary gauntlets of yours, you're actually a gorgeous young woman just waiting to get swept off your feet, too."

"I don't wear glasses," Yand retorted flatly, to which his smile only grew wider.

"Then you're already halfway there."

"Oookay, you two," Blake cut in after a moment of silence, reaching for her blade from between the brawler who was suppressing a smile by pursing her lips and narrowing her eyes at the blacksmith and the smug blacksmith himself, "We have to get going, but thanks for the favor, Davin."

He broke his locked gaze with Yang to glance at her, "Anytime, Blake. Stay safe out there - the damage on Gambol when it came in looked pretty brutal."

The ravenette dragged her partner out with her, nodding at the blacksmith as they made their way out of the forge, "Will do."

Finally beginning to keep up with Blake at her own pace once outside the forge, Yang exhaled sharply, "Darn it. He won that round."

"Who knew?" the catgirl idly commented as the two walked down the halls, "Team RWBY's most fiery member _actually_ has a functioning libido."

"Oh _please_, it's how the game is played!" Yang retorted amiably as she flipped her hair with a wide smile, "Nothing more to it!"

"I would think that someone like you would be more for the sudden spark in a relationship than playing it out that way."

"Uuugh, you wouldn't be the first to say that," the brawler replied with an exaggerated groan, "People think just cuz I have a thing with fire and all that I go for those flare-type relationships..."

A slight pause as Blake glared at her pointedly and began to nod.

"...Well I don't! Fires don't always do that, flash for a quick heated second before fading away into nothing... Some fires burn slow... _warm_, growing with time and lasting once it takes hold," she paused as a warm smile grew on her face and she turned to her somewhat surprised partner, "_Those_ fires are the best ones."

Blake blinked at the unexpected depth of thought from her partner, "I... had no idea you saw things that way... So, you and Vin?..."

Yang shook her head with a knowing grin, "I don't think so, maybe in another time or another life, but not here and now - besides, he doesn't strike me as the _Hero_ type I'm into," but snaking her arm around the ravenette's shoulder, she added with a teasing tone, "But _hey_ now, how do you know that I'm not into the _ladies_ and that this is all a part of my plan to romance _you_, hmm?~"

The catgirl merely stuck her tongue out in distaste, "Bleh. _Pass_."

"Whatever you say, Blakey~" she replied as she started walking ahead of her, sensually accenting the sway of her hips with every step, "Just make sure you don't give people the wrong idea about you and Jauney-boy, 'kay? ...If there's nothing to _hide_, that is~ Anyway, I'm gonna go check on Rubes and the Ice Princess... you should go eat some tuna or something."

Blake sighed, rolling her eyes at the lame cat remark before shooting the brawler an evidently fake smile and a thumbs up, "Fine by me."

Chuckling as she turned a corner and left her partner alone in the hall, Yang continued onward while Blake sighed once more and only turned to glance toward the cafeteria. For some reason, a single thought on her mind had settled in... and she just wasn't feeling hungry anymore.

* * *

"This... really... _sucks_," Jaune hedged once more between idle steps as he lingered around the launchpad, his appetite long lost after being hit with the bombshell that Blake had so blatantly provided. It was like waking up from a really good dream to a reality that just... didn't measure up to it.

Uneventful? _Uneventful?_ After spending hours getting the hang of an entirely new semblance, taking down two hordes of Grimm before facing the largest Ursa they'd ever seen, _that's_ how she chose to summarize that morning!? It was a puzzle that was proving quite the headache to figure out, the blonde knight groaning aloud in frustration before resuming his slow pacing and cycle of self-doubt.

"I should've known it was too good to be true... This... really... _su_-"

"*_ahem_*"

The unexpected sound nearly caused him to trip mid-step, turning to see the very person who had held a monopoly over this thoughts over the last half hour.

"Um, hi..." Blake began quietly from a few feet away, her hands held together in front of her as she tried to crack a small smile at the surprised Arc.

He merely blinked at her incredulously for a second before regaining his composure and speaking up, "You're _kidding_, right? I thought we got past the 'awkward greeting' part several hours ago, you know, before you and I put a serious dent in the local Grimm population? And before we got called into the office for taking down Vale's meanest mega-bear? Not to mention the part where you _brushed all that off_ a half hour ago..."

Blake sighed, her amber-eyed gaze glued to the floor as she replied, "I... I apologize. It was to avoid any unnecessary implications between us from our teammates. I probably should've told you that last semester I spent some time off-campus alone with Sun... needless to say, it was a period of time that my team didn't let me live down for several months afterwards. It's... a nuisance that I'd rather not repeat."

The admission wasn't expected, especially the part about her revealing past events without being asked to, but Jaune brushed aside the idea of her and Sun as he picked out the emotions behind her measured words.

"Oh," the knight blinked, his expression softening as he milled over her explanation with a light chuckle, "Well, since we're being open and all, I guess I can say that I can relate. Having seven sisters teaches you how bad a group of women with the goal to insinuate can be..."

'Oh, I doubt that little counts as me being _open_,' she hedged internally before replying aloud with a forced smile, "Still... I apologize for being overly-guarded. My team gave me quite the earful last semester for being that way."

Knowing how tense her teammates had been when they had found out she was withholding information about herself from them, Blake was considerably surprised by his prompt reply.

"Well, you have the total right to be, if you think about it," he began coolly with a shrug, "I mean, everyone is entitled to share what they want when they're ready to, and in the end, you opened up to your team because _you_ felt like it and because _you_ were ready to do so..."

She slowly nodded, surprised - and fairly grateful - that he was taking her instinctual reaction of brushing people off much better than her team had when she had essentially done the same to them, "True..."

"So it's only fair that you'd choose to tell me whatever you need to when you're ready for it," he continued before sheepishly scratching the back of his head, "If anything... _I_ should be the one to apologize for being the one jumping to conclusions. I guess I was starting to get worked up 'cuz you had suddenly started acting like nothing ever happened."

"You were?" she asked too quickly to catch herself, earning a deadpan from the knight to which she raised her hands placatingly with a small smile, "Sorry. So... we're good?"

Jaune hummed contemplatively before replying with a smirk, "I dunno... I think you still might owe me one after all this..."

She looked down, pursing her lips to the side and pensively furrowing her brows before looking up at him with a thought, "I... know a good place where we can get some berries to share?"

Jaune's smirk widened into a grin, "Add some waffles to that and we have a deal!"

"Dork," she quipped in reply, smiling as she stepped forward and punched him in the shoulder.

"Gah! At least you don't hit as hard as Pyrrha!" the knight retorted as he exaggeratedly reeled back from the punch, to which Blake held up her fist and waved it at him in a playfully menacing manner as a grin started growing on her as well.

"Don't tempt me!"

"Yeah yeah," he hedged, idly waving her fist away before he noticed Gambol's blade, "Hey, you got your weapon back!"

"Yes I did," she remarked contentedly, pulling out the weapon and extending it into bladed form, "I should probably test it to check the balance."

It was a strange feeling, but Blake was enjoying the rush of redemption much more than she thought she would. As she readied herself in combat stance, about to execute a practice technique she had done with Gambol Shroud at least a hundred times - a series of cuts and slashes through the air that were so fast that the tip could barely be seen with the naked eye - she contemplated what she had just done.

Yes, she had just attempted to brush off a new friend - _slash slash swipe!_

Deep down, she expected him to hold at least a grudge against her... after all, it was what she deserved, right? - _whoosh whoosh slash!_

Yet, not only had he forgiven her, he had apologized for jumping to conclusions and showed himself willing to continue associating with her! - _whishwhishwhishslashslashWHOOSH!_

Ending her exercise paused in the finishing strike, a lightly panting Blake turned to the sound of a clearly impressed Jaune clapping, "_Wow_. Now _that's_ how you handle a blade right there."

Her team had done much the same in terms of forgiveness... but to her, it was evident that the Arc knight had truly put it behind him, never to think of it again.

**_PING!_**

**[_Sword Mastery_'s level has risen by 1.]**

'Wait a second,' the catgirl thought to herself curiously, giving the knight a brief nod of gratitude before standing up straight, "_Inventory_."

**[Inventory]**

**_Equipment_**

**|...| O |...|  
****|...| /X\ |...|  
****|...| /\ |...|**

**_Weapons_**

**|Gambol's Sheath| |...|**

**|...| |...|**

**_Items_**

**|Recovery Potion _x4_| |Unknown Item _x1_|**

**|...| |...|**

Blake held her hand up and glanced at it, flexing her fingers as Jaune looked on in curiosity before reaching into the filled box in the _Weapons_ section.

_FLASSH!_

And with a brief flare of light, the sheath was in her hand, Blake now closing the window as she prepared another exercise. Now placing one foot in front of the other, Blake now moved forwards with a series of twirls and slashes, each step smooth and slow as she sliced at an invisible target before coming to a halt.

**_PING!_**

**[_Dual Wielding_'s level has risen by 1.]**

"Just as I thought..."

"Everything okay?" Jaune finally asked, his curiosity now coming to the fore.

Blake nodded, a small smirk gracing her face as she explained, "Since I haven't had Gambol Shroud in its entirety, I haven't been able to grind my full arsenal of weapon skills until now... speaking of which..."

And quickly flipping Gambol's blade over her arm into pistol form, Blake poised it over her other forearm to steady her aim before shooting a pear out of a tree from about a fifty meters away, "I guess I've still got it..."

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[A skill has been created through a special action.]**

**[A skill to utilize firearms freely, _Firearm Mastery_, has been created.]**

**_DING!_**

**[Firearm Mastery (Passive) LV1 - EXP: 0.00%]**

**Strike targets from a distance using firearms.  
****49% accuracy with targets within 250m.  
****98% accuracy with targets within 50m.**

"Nice."

"Hold on," Jaune suddenly stated, brows furrowed in thought, "I'm starting to wonder... that maybe, maybe somehow you got nerfed from the get-go so you'd get used to your new semblance instead of relying on your weapon..."

"That sounds a bit far-fetched," she replied, finally catching her breath. But still... it was certainly food for thought.

However, his expression changed as a smile began growing on his face with his next question, "Wait a sec, have you used every form of your weapon yet?"

Blake thought it over for a moment before shaking her head, to which Jaune continued, "Then do it... there's something I want to test."

Cocking her head to the side in curiosity, the ravenette complied, tying the ends of the black ribbon from her forearm onto each half of the weapon before warning the knight, "You might want to stand back for this."

Jaune did just so before Blake set off her weapon, the bladed end still in pistol form as she whipped it around herself at lethal speeds. Flipping the blade up and around herself several times, she executed a nimble flip through the air to effortlessly reel in the dangerous weapon and catch it as she landed.

**_PING!_**

**[A skill has been created through a special action.]**

**_PING!_**

**[A skill to utilize kusarigamas freely, _Kusarigama Mastery_, has been created.]**

**_DING!_**

**[Kusarigama Mastery (Passive) LV1 - EXP: 0.00%]**

**Easily slice through targets at range using a kusarigama.  
****66% increase in hit rate.  
****5% increase in attack damage.**

"I only unlocked my kusarigama skill," Blake began simply, glancing at the still-expectant knight, "What were you trying to te-"

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[You have equipped all of Gambol Shroud's weapon forms.]**

**[Skill set effect is activated.]**

**STR increased by 2.  
****VIT increased by 2.  
****DEX increased by 2.  
****INT increased by 2.**

"Aaand?~" Jaune now began with a knowing smirk.

Blake continued blinking at the last window, "I... just got really strong."

"Uh-huh," he continued smugly, casually crossing his arms, "It wouldn't have anything to do with a... _skill set_... would it?"

The catgirl looked up at the Arc as she closed the window, unable to hold back a wide - albeit reluctant - smile at his confident demeanor, "You... are surprisingly interesting, Jaune Arc."

"And _you_ are surprisingly adorable when you go cross-eyed like that at a window," the knight retorted in an amiable attempt to tease her without realizing the compliment he'd given her at the same time, causing the faunus-girl to narrow her eyes at him as a blush immediately warmed her cheeks.

"Not fair... I can't help it," she passively complained as his chuckling turned into good-natured laughter.

"Which is what makes it adorable!"

"What's adorable?" a third voice suddenly interrupted, Jaune and Blake turning to see Nora approaching them with a smiling Ren not too far behind.

Jaune's laughter quickly died down into a nervous chuckle as he replied, "Uh, heh, nothing. Just another one of my lame jokes."

The hammer maiden reached the pair and adopted a believable expression of condolence as she slowly nodded at her leader, "They _can_ be pretty lame..."

Ren, however, was not one to be so easily fooled. Judging by Jaune's previously elated expression and Blake's still-fading blush, he had a vague idea of what was going on. In a way, it reminded him of his friendship with Nora. It may seem strange how two people of such opposite personalities could simply hit it off like that, but if anyone in the Academy could understand it, it was Lie Ren. And to him, there was no doubt about it... Jaune and Blake were hitting it off in much the same way.

"One day they'll understand," he mumbled to himself with an amused sigh before the rest of their teams arrived.

"Oh good," Yang called out as soon as she caught sight of her partner and her weapons, "We gave the dorm another sweep cuz I thought you must've left Gambol's sheath somewhere. I guess you did have it after all!"

And not too far behind, Pyrrha waved to get her own partner's attention, "And I almost forgot to bring extra gum for the flight, Jaune! I got your favorite!"

"Gum?" Ruby echoed in curiosity as the eight students gathered and the side door to the Hunter-class Bullhead opened down to the floor as a ramp.

Before Pyrrha could respond to cover up the actual reason for its need, Nora pulled out a crinkly paper bag from a somewhat compromising location inside the hem of her skirt and smacked it onto Jaune's chestplate, "Yeah, it goes with his doggie bag for after he tosses his cookies on the airship!~"

"Nora... you know you have a side pouch on your skirt for that kind of thing, right?" Ren somewhat calmly asked while pinching the bridge of his nose.

"_Whoopsieee_~ I guess I forgot!"

And watching the giddy hammer maiden skip into the cabin and take a seat as the others began to follow with mixed expressions of amusement - and in Weiss' case, repulsion - Blake observed with a mumble as Pyrrha apologetically handed the embarrassed knight the pack of gum, "Funny... He wasn't like that this morning."

"Excuse me?" Pyrrha turned around, a brow raised in curiosity at the catgirl, "I thought I heard you say something."

"Oh! Erm..." Blake nearly froze, quickly devising a cover-up, "I said, 'Cunning... In case he hurls without warning'... heh."

The Spartan merely blinked at her before cracking an amused smile, "Oh. Then, thank you."

"Yeah, _thanks_, Blake," Jaune added sarcastically with a deadpan... that is, until he surprised the ravenette as soon as his partner turned to enter the airship by silently mouthing, _Good Save._

Blake merely stood there for a second being the last one yet to board, taken aback at the knight's ability to hold a completely different secondary conversation beneath the first before she finally stepped on-board. And here team RWBY had the habit of calling him _dense_. Call it the curiosity of the cat, but she wanted to see how capable he was of proving them wrong.

Fortunately, it seemed that the seating arrangement was conducive to doing so at least. The Hunter-class Bullhead cabin had eight seats, four on either side separated nearly entirely by a weapons locker in the center in which the students had already stashed their gear for the ride. For the sake of appearances, Blake did the same instead of resorting to placing Gambol Shroud in her inventory menu, something she was beginning to find rather impractical as it left her without immediate access to her gear.

Now, team RWBY had taken one side of the cabin, Weiss sitting at the end followed by Yang and Ruby who quickly began chatting about weapons. This left Blake by the side door with a clear view of the blonde knight who was currently sitting across from her without obstruction from the weapons locker. Leaning over a bit, she could even see some of Nora who was seated by the knight - already chatting with Ren most likely - which left Pyrrha at the far end who had seemingly been engaged in conversation by Weiss through a similar opening through the lockers.

From her vantage point, however, it soon became evident to the ravenette after the side door closed and the aircraft took off how quickly the blonde knight's condition deteriorated. And despite his eventual metamorphosis into a sickly shade of green a few minutes into the flight, his team didn't really seem to mind even when he finally dry-heaved with his fist pressed against his mouth to keep it shut. As a matter of fact, when he did so, all Nora did was absent-mindedly reach back and pat him on the leg over the pocket where he kept the paper bag to remind him to take it out, all without breaking eye-contact with Ren nor even pausing their conversation.

At that, Blake couldn't help but feel pity for her new aquaintance-turned-friend. So, if there was any time for her to execute her silent conversation plan, her chance was now.

She started by glancing at him until they made brief eye-contact, her questioning expression getting him to lock his gaze with hers.

'Hmm, got his attention easily enough,' she thought to herself before glancing at his paper bag and then at Nora. He then turned to his teammate and silently chuckled, rolling his eyes in indication that this was their usual habit when he was facing airsickness.

Blake smiled, quietly giggling as well before he got her attention with a raised finger and pointed it at the Valkyrie and Ren, now flapping his fingers together in a 'too talkative' gesture. But glaring pointedly at the knight, she merely pointed at him accusingly with a small smirk to tell him he had the same faults.

Of course, he sat back with a mock-offended expression, pointing at himself in a dramatically exaggerated show of innocence to which the catgirl deadpanned before mouthing, _Samus Aran._

Though it did take a moment for him to process what she had just said, he quickly understood and threw his arms up in frustration, turning back to her with a smirk as he lifted a finger and quietly retorted, _One time!_

Sure, he had only gone off about video games and nerfing once, in which he'd mentioned the bounty hunter from space by name in his long list of grievances, but that wasn't her point. Blake had just proven to herself that as long as you could keep Jaune occupied with a conversation he truly considered engaging like she had done earlier that morning - in his case, one about video games - his symptoms quickly disappeared. Once she was satisfied with her findings, she figured it was time for the reveal.

"You okay?" she whispered while making a circling motion with her palm over her abdomen, still mouthing the words enough for him to catch their meaning in case he couldn't hear. Idly repeating the motion on himself in his momentary confusion, his eyes lit up as he looked down at himself and felt his perfectly settled stomach before looking up at her and flashing her a grateful thumbs up.

It was difficult to explain what Blake felt next. She was definitely glad that Jaune had managed such a conversation as well - it was a form of communication that the catgirl greatly preferred. To her, a silent conversation was personal, private, and in a way... special. And in her own team, Ruby would likely get too confused to maintain one, Weiss would... well... she wasn't much of a conversationalist period, and Yang would likely loudly tell her to speak up.

So as she felt what seemed like a surge of warmth within her when she and Jaune traded understanding grins, the one thing she knew for sure was that she was beginning to value his association that much more.

"Hey Blake, everything good?"

The ravenette's pleasant musing was cut short by Ruby's question, turning to meet her silver-eyed gaze with a content smile, "I... would definitely say so, Ruby. Thanks for asking."

"Ookay," the red leader replied with her signature awkward smile, a tinge of confusion in her voice upon noting the higher than expected level of warmth in Blake's reply.

"Looks like we're nearing the insertion point," Pyrrha now announced, looking out her port-side window at the pavilion beneath the ship as crews of detectives and teams of scientists toiled away at ground level.

It only took a minute or two more before the Bullhead landed on the central platform in the middle of the pavilion, the side doors opening as the eight students took out their gear and stepped down on the platform. The Spartan turned to see her partner in much better condition than he normally would be after a flight and called out to him, "You look good, Jaune! Seems like the airsickness doesn't weigh you down as much anymore."

"Ah well, turns out it helps when I keep my head focused on something," he replied with a casual shrug, receiving a brief smirk from the catgirl a few feet away from her which he reciprocated in kind. However, it was an action that didn't escape the Mistrali's eye.

If Pyrrha was about to ask her partner what exactly he meant by what he said, she didn't get a chance since two familiar VPD detectives walked by and recognized half the group.

"'Ey, 'ey Rocko!"

"What, Heff," the second detective turned to his partner as the former pointed out team RWBY one by one.

"I, I remember these girls from a couple months ago at that Dust shop crime scene... yeah yeah, we got uh, Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, Snow White, and uh... who was the last one?"

"Uhhh, she had a book or somethin. Ah yeh, Belle!"

Each member of the team traded uncertain glances before turning back to the detectives with forced smiles, Ruby being the first one to try and speak up with a wave, "Oh... right. We do remember you both as well! Um, do you guys know why there are so many scientists around here?"

And taking into account the crimsonette's question, the students looked around to find a considerable amount of men and women in white lab coats scanning the area with complex contraptions and instruments they could not identify. And to Blake's chagrin, it seemed a fair amount of them were concentrated in the vicinity of the GameStop she had crashed into the day before. However, she promised herself that this time would be better as the second detective spoke up.

"The higher-ups didn't say. All they says is they ain't takin no questions since they're playing this one pretty close to the chest," at that, he took off his sunglasses in as smooth a gesture he could manage before continuing, "Way I see it, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."

"C'mon, yer makin double-time and a half workin this shift, Rocko!"

Detective Rocko put his sunglasses back on with a placating smirk, "True. Well Lil Red, your best bet is to ask Skipper over there... he and his motley crew will tell you all where you gotta be just fine."

"Um, thanks," Ruby drawled with a small smile before turning in the direction the detective had pointed out. Walking towards two men in black suits and white shirts, the students were startled when Weiss did a double-take at another two men nearby and spoke up.

"Wait. Isn't that-?"

"Sup, losers!"

Jaune grinned as he noticed the familiar blonde, though dressed in a full suit - but no tie - and security earpiece, "Sun!"

The heiress visibly gaped at the sight of his blue-haired partner, clearly making his ensemble work with a pair of yellow aviators in replacement of his goggles to boot as he waved at the group, "Hey guys."

"Why are you both here?" Nora asked quizzically, cocking her head to the side in curiosity to which the two Haven students dramatically flashed their badges in unison like from some old cop show.

"Junior detectives! We're on the job!" Sun exclaimed indicatively, Neptune adding to it with gusto.

"This case is _officially_ in our jurisdiction."

"W-Wow," Weiss now stuttered uncharacteristically at the latter of the two, a small blush on her snowy complexion as she coyly kept her gaze on the ground, "And you really clean up nicely, Neptune..."

Behind her, Ruby made a decent show of looking weirded out, tapping her sister on the shoulder, "Yang, is it me, or is Weiss kinda-"

"Yep."

But before the crimsonette could insert herself in the situation to snap her partner out of it, the larger of the first pair of men approached the group, his wide frame practically forcing him to waddle over.

"Aha!" he began decisively with a grin and a distinctive accent, "_Just_ the people we were waiting for! Let me introduce myself - I'm _Captain_ of the Vale Police Department, but you boys and girls can call me _Skipper!_ Now _who's_ in charge?"

Ruby and Jaune traded unsure glances before each raising their hands, the lead man in his black and white suit raising a brow at the pair.

"_Co_-captains, eh? Alright," Skipper mumbled before pointing at the similarly dressed tall thin man behind him, "_This_ here is my trusted lieutenant, Kowalski, and in case you haven't met our two junior detectives, the blonde one is _Private_ and the tan one with the looks is _Rico!_"

"For the tenth time, my name's _not_ Rico!" Neptune complained with a huff.

"_Quiet_, Rico! I'm making introductions!" he then pointed at Sun indicatively, the Faunus-boy immediately whipping out a notebook with a pencil at the ready to take notes as Skipper paced in front of his team, "Now that we've got everyone together, we're gonna take a dozen of our CSI experts and scientists into the tunnel to see what _intel_ we can grab about those who caused this commotion! _Captain's Log:_ Embarking into hostile environment. Kowalski! We'll need to ease the _hearts_ and the _minds_ of those we escort into Mountain Glenn. Rico! We'll need special _tactical_ equipment. We're gonna face extreme _peril_... Private probably won't survive."

Sun's pencil snapped as he looked up at Skipper in shock.

"He's kidding, right?" Ruby whispered nervously at her sister, the brawler merely shrugging in reply.

"Alright, looks like we're ready to go, boys!" Skipper exclaimed as the dozen or so investigators and scientists assembled behind the detectives, "Most of the rubble has already been taken care of, so it should be _smooth_ sailing into the subterranean city! Time to move!"

And with that, Ruby and Jaune traded shrugs as the Captain led the group of people onto the nearby open-roof rail car that had been installed to ride on the cleared out tracks back toward the underground city, relieved that their responsibilities in caring for these people were limited to simply protection.

For team RWBY, however, the ride back through the tunnel was like reliving the previous day's conflict that had been so decisive in the continued safety of the city. Each remembered every slash and strike they dealt and received as the rail car sped along, Yang being the most irked of them all with the memory of her failed attempt to subdue her ice cream themed assailant.

On the other hand, Blake could only recall Roman's taunts all directed at her past and who she was, the momentary feeling of anger rising up within her chest before she thought about the transformation she had undergone soon after. It was as if she were being given a chance at a new beginning, a new quest with new tools to fulfill a purpose that would be worthwhile. A purpose... that could maybe atone for her past sins. It was wishful thinking on her part, but she felt that, like Ozpin had said, luck could hardly be used to describe this sort of matter.

However, as the rail car was suddenly forced to stop at a giant rocky barrier just outside the entrance into the underground sector of Mountain Glenn, Blake began to feel rather _un_lucky.

Stealthily making her way through a few investigators with greater ease than she had recalled being able to do so before, she furtively tapped Jaune on the shoulder to get his attention along with a whisper.

"Jaune?"

He turned, somewhat surprised that he hadn't noticed her coming, but smiled nonetheless as he replied, "What's up?"

"I... had a question. I know you told me about it before, but how exactly does a low LUK attribute affect you in an RPG?"

He hummed in thought before quietly responding, "Not too badly, really. You may have difficulty with skills that have a chance at failure, you may have problems with mini-games involving it too, and you may be faced with bosses and mobs in less-than-convenient circumstances..."

The catgirl glanced at the large rocky obstruction, unwittingly gulping as Skipper approached Sun.

"Private! Status report!"

Frantically scrolling through a small tablet, Sun shook his head at the information he was reading, "I've no idea, Skipper! This whole part of the tunnel was cleared out this morning, it's like the wall came out of nowhere!"

"_Don't_ give me excuses!" Skipper shouted before smacking the unsuspecting junior detective on the head repeatedly, "Give me _results!_"

Blake merely looked back at a vaguely amused Jaune who had seen the whole interaction between the detectives, "Jaune, if that's the case... then I don't have a very good feeling about what's on the other side of that wall..."

"Huh?" he replied, half his attention still towards the Captain who now turned towards Neptune.

"Rico!"

"Yeah yeah," the student began with a mischievous grin, flipping out his energy trident and aiming it at the wall in gun mode, "I got your tactical right here."

_BLAM! ...BOOOM!_

And with a thunderous crash, the obstruction came down, the people in the tunnel covering their mouths or otherwise coughing at the dust and debris that had blown around with the force of impact. However, the entry into the giant cavern was pitch black, the general unease growing among the people in the tunnel before Skipper turned to his lieutenant.

"Kowalski! Lights!"

Already hopping over a few rocks to get to a small control panel on the side of the tunnel wall that had beven uncovered with the removal of the obstruction, the lieutenant exclaimed with a salute, "Aye, Skippa!"

_SHOONK!_

Flipping the large switch, everyone watched as a string of high-power lamps were turned on all over the derelict underground city, the brown and grey cavern walls and buildings clearly seen standing over a... pitch black floor?

"Uhh... Guys?" Sun began with rising panic, "I think... I think the ground's _moving_..."

And as if on cue, dozens upon dozens of white facemasks over blood-red eyes began to appear over the tufts of black, the students instinctually arming their weapons as Jaune turned to face the catgirl.

"A _mob_. In a _cave_. You really _are_ unlucky."

All Blake could do was crack a nervous smile at the knight before Pyrrha pointed in the lieutenant's direction, "Protect Kowalski!"

_RAWWWR!_

And like a sudden wave of darkness, the Grimm surged at the group, several creatures approaching the wailing lieutenant before being countered and held back by Ren and Nora in tandem.

Launching themselves into the fray, all of team RWBY took out considerable numbers of Grimm before landing using concussive blast rounds from their firearms, Weiss literally blowing up a small opening for them to land on with a powerful red dust glyph from Myrtenaster.

Jaune turned to his partner before she sped away to join the fight, "Pyr, we gotta stay close to the mouth of the tunnel to protect the civilians, let the Grimm bottleneck trying to get to us so we can take them out from here... Pyrrha, you okay?"

He placed a hand on the girl's bare shoulder as she furrowed her brows at the masses of Grimm, turning back to the knight with a deeply concerned expression, "Jaune, they're all _Beowolves_... Beowolves aren't known to travel in packs so large, much less dwell in subterranean caverns."

"Yeah," he replied flatly, glancing at the ravenette fighting the main horde a few dozen yards away as the first wave of Grimm approached the Arkos partners, "Weird."

_GRAWR!_

"Stay behind me!" Pyrrha shouted instinctually as she sliced through the first Beowolf that pounced at them, racking up Grimm kills as Ren and Nora quickly made their way to join after ushering the frazzled lieutenant back to safety with the main group.

The three trained fighters of team JNPR did the brunt of the work while Jaune called out the location of oncoming waves so they could shift their focus accordingly, somewhat surprised when team RWBY reunited with them at the mouth of the cave a few minutes later through the carnage.

"Is anyone injured?" Pyrrha shouted over the mass of growling and sharp clashes of bone and metal.

Ruby quickly sliced through a trio of Beowolves with Crescent Rose as her team helped form a perimeter around the mouth of the tunnel, turning to the Spartan with the momentary reprieve, "No, there's too many of them! We were surrounded!"

Meanwhile, Blake continued her onslaught on the Grimm, dual wielding Gambol Shroud but with growing frustration as each slash merely slowed or immobilized the Grimm instead of killing them.

'Argh, _why_ can't I one hit kill them anymore!?' she grumbled internally as she put a pair of the beasts out of commission with a flurry of slashes, struck with a thought before speaking up as quietly as needed given the circumstances, "_Skill List._"

_**DING!**_

**[Skill List]**

**A Gamer's Mind**

**A Gamer's Body**

**Observe**

**Stealth**

**Sword Mastery**

**Blunt Weapon Mastery**

**Firearm Mastery**

**Kusarigama Mastery**

**Dual Wielding**

**Aura**

**Vecchian Recovery**

**Detect Bloodlust**

**Energy Bolt**

**Dust Proficiency**

**Sense Danger**

**Power Strike**

Taking only a second to click on the corresponding skill, the desired window came up with a _ding_ as she sliced through another Beowolf.

**[Dual Wielding (Passive) LV3 - EXP: 73.58%]**

**Use dual wielded weaponry to inflict swift attacks on the target.  
****50% increase in attack speed.  
****50% decrease in attack damage.**

'My first skill that includes a debuff. No _wonder_, I'm trading speed for power doing this... and my Mana won't let me hold out much longer like this...'

And quickly slinging Gambol's sheath on her back, Blake gripped her blade tightly and began clearing out the area around her with one hit kills.

_fft-pah-whoosh-fft-fft-poof...!_

"Huh! Hah! Yah! Hiyah!"

Yang looked beside herself to what she thought was Blake shadow-cloning herself in multiple directions only to see the growing black mist of vaporized Grimm, "Uhh... Blake?"

Making her way through another half-dozen or so Grimm in a matter of a couple seconds, the catgirl quickly turned to the brawler, "I'll explain later. Where's Jaune?"

"_Jaune?_" Yang echoed incredulously, confused as to why the ravenette would be thinking about the knight's location at a time like this.

The catgirl groaned in a brief moment of frustration before killing three more Beowolves in front of her with a single diagonal slash, "Just cover me!"

And unleashing a volley of shotgun blasts from her gauntlet, Yang's whistling projectiles explosively cleared a path along the opening of the tunnel for Blake to leap through before finally landing on the front the rail car where Jaune was calling out formations.

"Blake? What's going on?" he asked with some surprise at seeing her, internally crediting her DEX attribute in having let her get to him so easily without her previous semblance.

"What are you doing here?" she questioned hastily in reply, "You need to be down there fighting!"

"Blake, I can't," the knight responded morosely, "My team is much better than I am, and they-"

"Let me stop you right there," the increasingly heated Blake interrupted, "Because that is _not_ the Jaune I saw this morning! You may not be able to allocate your points to specific attributes like I can, but you leveling up _has_ to mean something!"

"They're overwhelming us on the left end, we need more help here!" Ren grunted aloud with evident exertion, Skipper and Kowalski heading to the vulnerable area and discharging their handguns into the oncoming Grimm while Sun and Neptune did the same with their own weapons.

Sensing the increasing grevity of the situation as more lives were being put on the line, Jaune then turned to Blake with a steeled expression, "Then what do you suggest we do."

"You. Me. Party, _right now_. We need to get you to level up - something's bound to happen, even if it's just a partial removal of your negative status effect!"

The knight nodded, the intense resolve in the faunus-girl's amber eyes solidifying the determination in his own, "Let's do this."

Immediately turning a bit as the blonde knight ensured everyone took refuge at the rear of the rail car, Blake quickly went through the motions.

"Create party."

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[You've created a party.]**

**[What would you like to name your party?]**

"Level Ten."

**_PING!_**

**[Would you like _Level Ten _to be your party name?]**

**Confirm (_Y_) - Refuse (_N_)**

Jaune turned upon hearing the name, shooting Blake a quick smile that she returned in kind before clicking the confirmation button and finishing the command, "Invite to party."

**_PING!_**

"Got it."

"Then let's get back down there," Blake stated as she readied her blade once more for combat.

Leaping down the rail car to join his team, Jaune was stopped by the look of pure alarm in his partner's eyes the moment she caught sight of him, "J-Jaune, what are yo- It's not safe here!"

"He has to," Blake suddenly interjected as she landed beside them, completely obliterating two Beowolves that pounced on her in two quick slashes to which Pyrrha and even Ren some distance away glanced incredulously at the surprising two-strike-two-kill feat, "We can't cover him like this forever."

"But Jaune," the red-haired Spartan implored the Arc knight as Blake provided some cover fire to help Ren and Nora push back the growing waves of the horde, "You've yet to unlock your semblance. You could be gravely injured... please, just think about this for a moment..."

"I _have_," Jaune replied warmly, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder with a small smile, "And I think I've finally found a way to use your training to get me stronger than I could've possibly ever- LOOK OUT!"

And in one glance over his partner's shoulder, Jaune saw the whole operation fall apart in front of him.

Like a synchronized heaving of darkness and fangs, dozens of Beowolves rushed their entire perimeter at once, overwhelming the two teams. Forced to pull back, Ruby turned to the rail car and shouted, "They're too many! We can't hold on any longer like this!"

"Our side's caved in as well!" Ren called from the knight's other side, "We have to fall back, the Grimm will converge on us in seconds!"

But all of that happened in less than a second in Jaune's eyes, his full focus engrossed in the half-dozen Beolowlves merely a few feet away from his partner's exposed back. Unsheathing only his blade, each heartbeat felt several seconds apart, all noise muted as he wrapped an arm behind Pyrrha's back and forced her to duck underneath the first claw-strike before gutting the offending creature with an upwards slash from his blade.

With a thunderous cry that all could hear but he himself, both hands gripped Crocea Mors and swung with a mighty spin - one, _two_ more Beowolves going down in a single strike. And setting down his foot to gain sure footing, he pivoted around the heel in a final turn as he brought the sword up and severed the remaining Grimm in half, his sword beginning to glow in his hands with the act.

All sound returning to him as he looked down at his sword, glowing a brighter and brighter yellow as his body began to shine white with his aura as well, he cast a panicked glance at the ravenette, "Uh... Blake? D-Did I just unlock a new skill?"

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[_Arc Knight_'s level has risen by 1.]**

**[Semblance has been unlocked.]**

**[Semblance now activated.]**

Blake's eyes widened at the slew of windows in front of her, her voice coming out in a strained cracked whisper as the remaining students now in a tight formation tried their utmost to keep the Grimm from overtaking the rail car just a few feet behind them, "Oh, y-you've done _SO_ much more than just that..."

"Jaune?" Pyrrha called out from over her shoulder as an immense mass of Beowolves began piling up over each other above the already overwhelmed students, threatening to crash down on them at all angles as the wave of Grimm began blocking out most of the light from the cave into the tunnel itself, "_Jaune!_"

But he could no longer hear them.

With eyes closed and brows furrowed as if recalling words from eons ago, the knight instinctually pulled out Crocea Mors' sheath and placed it over his sword in its scabbard form, holding up the combined weapon in both hands by the hilt from within the quickly shrinking pocket that his team and Ruby's were struggling to keep intact.

_Un Eques juravit ad virtu..._

_Eius corde modo cognoscit virtutis..._

_Eius gladium defendit inbellem..._

_Eius fortitudo dicans infirmi..._

"What _is_ that?" Ruby shouted over the chaos as the energy around the blonde knight began to hum with power, "What's he _saying!?_"

But Blake could only gape at the scene from beside the glowing knight as he continued the incantation and his aura began pulsing out with an increasingly louder hum into the sword, fusing it and turning it into a massive golden broadsword with intricate white runes running down the blade as the force of energy became so strong that he began to levitate into the air.

_**Euis verbum loquitur nisi verum...**_

_**Eius iram vincit impii...**_

**_Et hoc ego jurare..._**

Suddenly understanding the motion when she happened to glance at the knight just as he lifted the immense sword over his head with both hands, it was a rapidly panicked _Weiss_ who now turned to her peers and the people with a final cry.

"_Everybody get down NOW-!_"

**_...PER CROCEA MORS INVICTA!_**

_eeeeEEEEEE-**SHOOOOOM!**_

A blinding yellow light suddenly filled the entire tunnel just as the wave of Beowolves crashed down towards the students and civilians, the successive blast blowing a brief gale-force wind through the tunnel and into the main city before anyone could possibly hope to stand up straight and regain their bearings.

Once they did, however... the student's jaws collectively dropped to the floor in shock as they noticed that not a single creature of Grimm remained. Yang was the first to speak up after blinking in utter disbelief at the eerily quiet scene in front of them.

"What. The _flying_. _FU_-"

"Blake," Pyrrha interrupted flatly, her gaze keenly focused on the raven-haired girl to whom Jaune had specifically directed himself before all of _that_, "What just happened."

"I..."

"It was his semblance."

Everyone's heads turned to the panting heiress as she finally stood, her smaller frame still showing signs of trembling as she continued with no small measure of awe, "A semblance... which has not been seen in all of Remnant for_ five generations_. 'Crocea Mors' - _heh_, stupid me, I should've known _The Yellow Death_ when I first laid eyes on it! It's the _only_ weapon that could've amplified its effects like that..."

"Weiss, what are you talking about?" Ruby now asked with charged curiosity, to which the disheveled heiress leveled a steady glare at her peers surrounding her.

"Everyone, with the aid of his family heirloom which has been passed down for nearly a century, Jaune Arc's aural semblance has fully manifested... into what was known in the Great War as _The Paladin_."

A stunned silence befell the group as the students traded bewildered glances before the hammer maiden broke the silence, "Umm, where _is_ Jaune exactly?"

"Over here," Sun called out, the knight's team quickly turning to see the faunus-boy and Neptune helping the weakened Arc up into a kneeling position. Blake had to restrain herself from rushing over to him right then and there as she saw his partner do exactly that, the concerned Spartan kneeling down as well to place a hand on his arm and the other along his back.

"_Paladin_, huh?" he began weakly with a cough, slowly looking up at the heiress, "My dad used to tell me stories of my great-great gramps during the war... that's what they called his semblance. They say his ability won the war with this sword in hand - I guess I can finally understand _why_."

"Jaune, that was _incredible_," Pyrrha now stated with a growing grin, the knight sparing her a small smirk as Weiss crossed her arms with a scoff.

"Incredible? That was _monumental! _It's one of Remnant's only known Anti-Army Semblances, and possibly an _Anti-Fortress_ one if he ever learns the full incantation!"

"Incantation?" Ren echoed, showing a rare expression of interest in the subject.

"Yes, a verbal form of the gestures I use to summon my glyphs, for example. There are semblances that require verbal cues to activate due to their highly destructive nature, though I don't doubt there are now a variety of offensive _and_ defensive casts and incantations that must be flowing through his mind now thanks to his fully manifested aura," Weiss then paused to glance at Crocea Mors on the floor nearby the knight, "And all of it through that sword as well."

"So the collective aura of the Arc line is undoubtedly aiding him in the execution of his semblance," the stoic pistol-wielder observed aloud with a hand to his chin in thought.

And with that, Blake suddenly understood why the knight's semblance had been ranked as _S_.

"Yayyy," Jaune hedged weakly before suddenly collapsing to the floor on his side, his partner quickly crying out to him in alarm.

"_Jaune!_"

As the remainder of team JNPR now rushed to their unconscious leader's side to sit him up, Blake made a motion to wipe some dust off her nose to hide her silent command, "_Observe_."

* * *

**Name: Jaune Arc  
****Class: The Knight****  
****Level: Lv12 _(Nxt lvl: 31.5%)_  
Rank: _D (Att: E | Def: E | Sem: S)_**

**...**

**HP: 19000/20000  
****MP: -400/600**

**...**

**STR: - 150 _-135 +_**

**VIT: - 235 _-211.5 +_**

**DEX: - 80 _-76 +_**

**INT: - 7 +**

**WIS: - 15 +**

**LUK: - 42 +**

**...**

**Points: 10**

**Emotions: N/A.**

* * *

'Leveled up twice from a single attack, his AP bar now reads _MP_, and his attributes can be edited now,' the ravenette internally mused with mild shock, scanning through the rest of the window, 'But his debuffs are_ still_ as they were before, and you would think he would've leveled up more with the amount of Grimm he killed. Strange...'

And finally noticing his MP bar, she groaned with worry and turned to his team while the rest of her team was checking that the civilians had remained safe and accounted for in the rail car, "Pyrrha, I don't think he's going to be up for a while."

Ten minutes at minimum, if her previous observations on his stats were correct.

The Mistrali looked down at her partner by her side and turned back up to Blake to give her a nod of acknowledgement before directing herself to her orange-haired teammate, "Nora, I'm going to need you to take Jaune into the rail car and keep him safe while the rest of us check the area for clues as to how this attack came about. You're... the only one who can carry him on your own without any problem."

And shooting back a winning grin, Nora flashed a quick thumbs up before bending down over the knight and literally tossing him over her shoulder before taking him into the rail car. Giving the hammer maiden a string of surprised glances, Ruby, Yang and Weiss got off the rail car at the same time as the crimsonette spoke up to Pyrrha while pointing at the Valkyrie behind her.

"Won't doing that mess with her back or something?"

"I don't think there's _any_ weight she can't handle," Ren supplied with a reassuring smirk.

"Right," Pyrrha added with a half-hearted smile, still more concerned about the boy that was being carried, "But now that the immediate threat has been removed, we need to ensure that the area is clear for the civilians before we let them commence their investigation. I suggest that we try and look for any clues as to the origin of these Beowolves while we're at it as well."

"Can we join?" Sun and Neptune asked, turning quickly to their captain who merely supplied them with a confirmatory nod.

Pyrrha replied as soon as Skipper gave his blessing, "Of course."

"Then I guess we fan out and work our way out from the entrance," Ruby suggested with a short shrug, "Nora keeps an eye on Jaune and tells us when he wakes so we can see how he's feeling."

However, even though they all had a moment to continue planning their next move in peace, Blake couldn't help the familiar uneasy feeling rising from within as Jaune's words about Grimm mobs echoed through her mind. Looking around the cavern as the students organized who would take what direction, Blake's tension came to a bitter peak as an all too familiar sound rang in her ears.

**_PING!_**

**[You've detected a strong bloodlust.]**

"Oh no..."

The catgirl quickly turned behind herself at a darkened area of the cavern before calling back at the students with a growing panic, "Guys, I _really_ don't think we're in the clear just yet..."

Yang chuckled good-naturedly as she began to approach her partner from behind, "Blake, what are ya talkin abou-"

_**ROOOAAAAAR!**_

Everyone in the cavern and tunnel froze at the sound, Blake being the fist to catch sight on the six-limbed monstrosity that she had hoped never to face again, "I really_ am _unlucky..."

"What in Monty's Remnant is _that!?_" Sun cried aloud as the full hulk of a Grimm charged into the fully-lit pavilion between Mountain Glenn and the tunnel, at this point almost an eerie reflection of the pavilion in which they'd fought in Vale the day before.

Ruby, however, set herself to analyzing the creature as it stood up on its hind legs and let out another ear-curdling roar, swiftly turning to the readied stoic as she came up with a plan, "Ren, that thing looks pretty slow and we're the fastest members of our teams. If you and I can weaken it quick enough, I think we can take it down!"

And looking back at the rail car where his usual leader would be, he turned back to her with a quick nod before pulling out Stormflowers and dropping into combat-ready stance. Upon noticing that, Blake quickly tried to stop them, reaching out as she shouted, "Wait!"

But it was too late. Speeding towards the Ursa Rex with the aid of her semblance, Ruby was already gone in a flurry of rose petals while Ren sped off towards the same beast with a pulse of magenta aura as well. Though he couldn't keep up with her, Ren was hot on Ruby's heels as the girl leapt up with scythe at the ready, swiftly inflicting numerous blows on its bony carapace as Ren did the same along with generous amounts of gunfire.

Landing next to the panting gun-slinger several feet away from the peeved beast as it continually failed to swat at her, Ruby huffed in frustration, "Nothing! Barely a scratch! That thing's armor is tougher than _steel_..."

"I'll take a crack at it," Sun quipped as he threw off his blazer, undoing his dress shirt until it hung open and untucked like his normal shirt usually did, "I was hating this suit anyway."

"I'll join you," Pyrrha added, the faunus-boy nodding before pulling out his staff and readying himself for a dash attack.

Grunting in muted irritation, Blake glanced at Weiss, Neptune and Yang before nodding her head in the beast's direction in a motion to follow, the four students then running behind the monkey-Faunus and the Spartan. The way the catgirl saw it, if there was anyone else who could handle the beast without her having to reveal her altered semblance, it was Pyrrha Nikos.

"Try aiming for its limbs, it looks like the armor is weaker there - that way we can see if it's possible to immobilize it," Blake suggested with as unassuming a tone as her voice could muster, that way making it look like a theory instead of fact.

Pyrrha nodded at the idea before coming to a quick pause mid-dash to carefully aim Miló in spear form at the beast's top left paw, launching the projectile with the recoil from its embedded pistol as Sun summoned three aural copies of himself to attack the other three paws. Though the spartan's weapon hit its mark, Sun's copies exploded on contact with the giant Ursa's limbs and got it to stop its rampage in a furious daze.

'We might actually be able to do this,' the catgirl mused with growing hope as the rear group approached the Ursa Rex.

"Alright, time to _bear_ arms!" Yang cried out with a charismatic whoop, Blake internally facepalming at the pun as the blonde brawler engaged Ember Celica and leapt toward the Grimm's face.

But realizing that Pyrrha and Sun's combined attack had only managed to daze the Ursa a fraction of the time that her mana attacks could, Blake felt her body go cold as the monster regained its senses and she turned to her partner, "Yang, look out!"

_WHACK!_

Barely able to dodge the attack, the Grimm's paw still managed to nick the brawler in the side, sending her hurdling to the ground with a sizable blast on impact. Blake ran up to the small crater as fast as she could, reaching down to pull out her disoriented partner who now slurred as she spoke.

"W-Well... _that's_ definitely gonna leave a bruise..."

Clenching her teeth as she carried the brawler back towards the group with her arm slung around her shoulder, Blake frantically tried racking her mind for another way to beat the beast. Recalling Ozpin's words about the nature of mana, an idea finally struck her as she set the dazed brawler down a safe distance away and turned to her peers.

"Weiss, Neptune, each of your weapons use a weaponized form of dust, correct?"

"Yeah," the blue-haired Haven student replied quickly, "I'll usually pump some aura into it for added power, too."

"Perfect!" Blake exclaimed, briefly glancing at the beast as Sun, Ren and Pyrrha held it back as best they could, "Weiss, I'll need you and Neptune to aim for the limbs, I think your attacks will have a better effect on it."

"But how can you be so sure that'll work?" the heiress suddenly questioned in the exasperation of the task at hand, "We don't even know what that thing _is!_"

"Don't... don't _mind_ that!" Blake exclaimed with growing frustration, each hand lightly placed upon her temples before jutting them toward the rapier-wielder as she tried thinking of a plan that Jaune would likely fabricate, "I'm playing a hunch. Ruby and I will try and take advantage of the Ursa's moment of vulnerability after your attacks, and we will figure it out from there."

"It's as good a plan as any," Ruby acknowledged resolutely, glaring at the reluctant heiress until she finally gave a submissive nod, "Weiss, you and Neptune stay back and take the shot as soon as you get one! Let's go, Blake!"

And following the red leader, Blake sized up the beast as Neptune and Weiss traded steeled glances before loading their weapons and taking aim. Not even a second passed before the cavern was lit up with the flashing lights of discharged ammunition and dust-flares, Neptune's rounds exploding all over the Ursa Rex with violent tendrils of energy while all manner of dust-infused flames engulfed its limbs courtesy from Myrtenaster.

Now roaring once more in savage fury at its damaged limbs, Blake and Ruby went to work, the crimsonette tracing circle over circle of gory carnage around the beast's immobilized shoulder joint at breakneck speeds as Blake readied her slash mid-leap.

"_Power Strike!_"

_POOOF!_

And with a massive blast, the entire arm came off in a plume of black mist, the students below gaping at the feat before Ren joined in and took off a third arm with nimble combinations of slicing and gunfire from Stormflower.

**_GRRAAAWR!_**

"I'm low on ammo!" Neptune cried out as the Ursa Rex slowly began to rise once more.

Weiss called out to the group, looking down at her rapier's dust levels as well, "And I only have enough dust for one or two more glyphs!"

But surprised by the sudden presence of a hand on her sleeve, Weiss turned to look up at a determined Neptune who now replied with a reassuring tone, "Don't worry. We got this."

Before she could ask what he meant, the blue-haired student then turned to call out to his partner, "Sun, I think this situation calls for the Apache Maneuver!"

"Apache Maneuver?" Ren echoed beside Sun and Pyrrha as they reloaded their respective weapons.

"Yep!" Sun acknowledged before quickly turning and snatching Akoúo out of Pyrrha's hands, "Which means I'm gonna need to borrow this. _Neptune, catch!_"

And without a moment to lose, Sun mightily slung the circular shield like a frisbee toward the massive Grimm, Neptune now dashing full sprint with a spur of aura at the beast as well as it finally managed to stand completely with a bloodthirsty roar.

As the shield closed in, Neptune caught up to it and leapt through the air, snatching it mid-flight and flipping it under his back like a sled before landing and continuing at a high-speed skid towards the Ursa. And with a loud cry, Neptune pointed his trident upward and took aim as he skidded right between the Grimm's legs before it could react.

_BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!  
_

**_AAAARRGH!_**

Looking at the beast upside down as he slid to a stop several dozen feet behind it, Neptune fistpumped as he saw the Ursa Rex go back down with a pained groan, Sun turning to his peers with a wide grin.

"Apache Maneuver, named after the attack a brave soldier executed against a robotic alien that could transform into a giant Apache helicopter by shooting at it while sliding under it at high speed. Saw it in a movie once."

Blake merely stared at her fellow Faunus slack-jawed, "I... don't even know what to say to that."

"Me neither!" he replied incredulously, raising his arms with a shrug, "It's the first time we try it... I'm actually surprised it even worked!"

The ravenette wasn't quite whether to feel angry or impressed at the impromptu attack, but her miffed musing was interrupted by her leader's orders, "Everyone, take the head while it's down!"

And with that, Pyrrha magnetically called her shield back from right under Neptune as the students now opened fire on the beast's head. But much to Blake's chagrin, not only was their gunfire ineffective, but the beast was starting to recover from its vulnerable state.

Realizing that even their combined efforts weren't going to be enough to subdue the giant Ursa, the catgirl quickly went through her options as the beast's arm began reaching beside itself to gain leverage against the ground to rise again.

'I don't have a power strike capable of decapitating it on its own,' she quickly rationalized, 'but there's no way to sever the neck without someone else to synchronize a power strike with me... unless...'

Looking down at her hand, Blake ceased fire and slipped back behind the firing line as an idea went through her mind, 'Energy bolt. It may be a skill, but it also gave me the ability to control my mana output when it was created. I wonder... I wonder what would happen if I gathered the mana in my hand...'

And holding out her open palm, steadying her raised wrist with her other hand, Blake then steadied herself into a wide stance as she willed the energy to her hand.

_ssssssssssSSSSSS_...

Her eyes widened as pale blue energy suddenly began coalescing along her arm like tiny veins, her hand beginning to glow as a spherical ball of energy began growing right in front of her palm. She couldn't help a smirk as it began to grow larger and larger, feeling the power radiating from the charging attack.

'This will _definitely_ cause a large amount of damage once it hits!' but stopping herself as she noticed her peers nearby the head still pelting its neck with gunfire, she reached a sudden impasse, 'But if I fire it like this, it could cause an explosion that puts everyone at risk! Think... what would I do in a game... what would _Jaune_ do in a game? ..._Got it!_'

With beads of sweat beginning to roll down her forehead, strands of slick black hair clinging to her face and neck, Blake furrowed her brows as she concentrated on the energy literally at hand, '_Spin_... spin like a spiral...'

Finally glancing to the side and happening to catch sight of the sizable spinning ball of energy, Ruby ceased fire as she turned to face the catgirl with growing concern, "Blaaake...?"

Weiss of course, didn't take long to follow, "What in Monty's Remnant is _that!?_"

"Hey, that's _my_ line!"

"_Shut up, Sun!_"

"Weiss!" the ravenette now called out under evident strain as the Ursa began rising in an attempt to stand, "I need you to steady that Grimm's head so I can land this thing - use a gravity glyph!"

"But-"

"NOW!"

Without another second more of hesitation, the heiress quickly spun the revolving chamber in Myrtenaster's hilt until it locked to blue, then casting a large blue glyph underneath the Ursa's head that caused it to slump back down under the pressure with an angry roar. The energy ball's pressure reaching a critical point, Blake now gritted her teeth with a scowl as the students cleared out and she flung her arms forward.

"Now _eat_ this, and _die!_"

_SHOOOM... **SSSSSKRAT****!**  
_

And with another flash of blinding pale blue light, the entire cavern lit up with the blast that tore its target to shreds, the students shielding their eyes and finally letting out grateful exclamations when they saw that the beast had indeed been destroyed. The entire head-less carcass coming down in a hiss of black smoke, Blake nearly collapsed as Jaune had, panting heavily as a hail of notifications surrounded her.

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[You have cleared the Mob Boss Dungeon.]**

**[You have gained 412900 XP.]**

**[Your level has risen by 1.]**

**[Your level has risen by 1.]**

**[Your level has risen by 1.]**

Slightly bewildered with the flow of information, she sputtered out as she remained hunched over, "_S-Status Window._"

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv17**

**...**

**HP: 863/950  
****MP: 2/700**

**...**

**STR: - 20 **_**+7 +**_

**VIT: - 32 _+11.2 +_**

**DEX: - 21 _+7.35 +_**

**INT: - 22 +**

**WIS: - 7 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 17  
****Money: 500,300 Lien**

* * *

'Really... just _two_ MP left..." the catgirl hedged as her teammates rushed over to her side, helping her up before the two lead detectives approached the group.

"Well _beat_ me senseless and _call_ me a penguin!" Skipper cried out in joyous mirth, "Looks like our monochromatic _friend_ here had an ace up her sleeve! High-fives all around, boys!"

And with that, Pyrrha, Ren and team RWBY watched with amused intrigue as Skipper, Kowalski, Sun and Neptune traded high-fives, low-fives, and all manner of fives between the four of them in a matter of seconds.

"Oh, and I almost forgot," the wide captain added with a snap of his fingers, "The _bat-crazy_ hammer girl in the rail car says that your knightly captain is regaining _consciousness_. She'd like your company on the _pronto!_"

Pyrrha, clearly excited by the news, quickly turned to the ravenette with a thankful expression before heading to the tunnel with Ren, "Thank you Blake, we are grateful to you for keeping us out of harm's way. Please excuse us."

Team RWBY now left alone with the four detectives, Ruby mused aloud as she compacted Crescent Rose and slung it across her back, "Now that it looks like we're clear, we should probably look for clues like Pyrrha had said... is that okay, Skipper?"

"Sounds _good_ to me, doll face," the captain replied with a smug smirk, "Cuz I gotta tell ya, I don't think those scientists are all too _comfortable_ with poking around this place after all this."

"I guess some tombs were never meant to be reopened," Yang added softly with a faint shudder.

But sensing the opportunity to check for boss drops, Blake was the first to voice her agreement, "Fine by me. I'll start with the area surrounding the Ursa Rex."

"Ursa Rex?" Weiss echoed, a brow raised in suspicion.

"Yes... It's a rarer and more ancient class of Ursa that you'll be learning about soon enough," the catgirl began, quickly fabricating her next few words to cover her tracks, "I had previously heard about them through... _past_ associates..."

Keeping quiet as her teammates traded questioning glances, Blake let them infer that she was referring to her past in the White Fang instead of her recent discovery with Jaune earlier that morning.

"Alright Blakey, fair enough," Yang began with her usual sass, much to the ravenette's relief, "But you're still gonna have to explain that little kamehameha stunt you pulled later."

And with a small smile and a nod, Blake turned to approach the evaporating Grimm carcass as each student and detective went their own way in search for clues. However, her main priority at the moment was the few glimmering items which had just appeared on the floor amid the black mist. Bending down and picking up the familiar flasks and cash, she quickly drank one, savoring the sweet concoction as it went down her throat and licking her lips contentedly before the empty flask faded out of existence.

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[87 HP recovered.]**

**[HP filled.]**

"Mm, strawberry. _I__nventory_."

She then quickly placed the remaining flasks in the inventory window along with the lien.

**[Inventory]**

**_Equipment_**

**|...| O |...|  
****|...| /X\ |...|  
****|...| /\ |...|**

**_Weapons_**

**|...| |...|**

**|...| |...|**

**_Items_**

**|Recovery Potion _x8_| |Unknown Item _x1_|**

**|...| |...|**

But keeping what instead of a dropped book was a fist-sized rough green jewel at hand, Blake checked it more intently, "_Observe_."

**[Low-Intermediate Green Dust - Class: Rare]**

**A crystal created by integrating considerable amounts of _green_ dust.  
****Useful for many things.**

"Hmm, I suppose it's quite rare then," Blake mused quietly, checking the stone up close before shrugging and placing it in her inventory.

"Um, guys? I think I found something!"

Turning at the sound of Ruby's voice, Blake converged on the crimsonette along with the remainder of the group as the girl held out a small silver brooch and spoke to the blue-haired junior detective, "Hey Neptune, isn't this a_ Haven_ pin?"

Gently taking it out of her hand, Neptune inspected it closely, handing it to Sun who nodded before letting his partner reply, "Sure looks like it. But we're the only Haven students who've been through this cavern, and we've never worn our school uniforms in here..."

"Heck, I'm pretty sure we haven't worn our uniforms since arriving at Vale _period_," Sun added matter-of-factly.

"Unless you weren't the only Haven students to come by here before," Weiss now drawled pensively, her weight shifted to one side of her hip as she concluded, "This can only mean that at least one other Haven student is connected to all this somehow."

"Wait. Don't you and Neptune have your teammates who visited like one time before the dance?" Yang asked her fellow blonde, the faunus-boy's tail going rigid at the thought.

"You mean Scarlet and Sage? No way they've been here," he defended adamantly, "They've been finishing some side-missions since Neptune and me got to Vale - they're pretty known in the West for their promising skills as a Hunter duo."

"They're first-year trainees and already doing their own solo missions?" Blake asked curiously, a tinge of incredulity in her voice to which the monkey-faunus shrugged.

"They do things differently in Haven than they do here. Talented pairs are offered missions for profit if they can prove their worth. And besides, those two have been working together for so long that people even got a special nickname for them:_ The Witch of Carnage and her Grand Warrior._"

"Though honestly, I just think Scar did one of her mind hexes on the Headmaster to let them go on those paid missions so soon," Neptune added simply with a smirk.

"Not a chance, dude! Professor_ Xavier?_ I thought he had an immunity to all that psychic crap."

"Aaanyway," Weiss now interjected with a raised brow, "I guess this rules out anyone from _your_ team having been here recently. But this still leaves proof that someone_ else _currently in Beacon knows about this incident... someone who clearly isn't what they seem. Such people always stand out in some way - we will need to find out the_ who_ and the _how_."

"Well, there _was_ that Haven team of _three_ I ran into a while back..." Ruby mumbled under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Oh nothing," the crimsonette replied with a small smile to her inquisitive partner, dismissing the thought as merely a baseless suspicion, "Just thinking."

"Well, being that our work is pretty much done here," Yang now suggested, "Why don't we continue this conversation back at Beacon? ...This place kinda gives me the creeps."

And with a final look-around at their surroundings, Ruby turned back with a small nod, "Alright, let's go."

* * *

No matter how Blake looked at it, that tunnel back to Vale continually seemed to harbor only harrowing memories. As the rail car sped through the underground tunnel, the scientists and most of her team on one side while team JNPR and the detectives occupied the other, Blake tried shutting out the memories. If it wasn't the Grimm, it was that White Fang Lieutenant. If it wasn't the Lieutenant, it was Roman. And if it wasn't Roman, it was that Oum-forsaken mutt, Zwei.

Finally finding a subject through which she could cast her previous thoughts aside, Blake's eyes now settled on Jaune Arc who was currently seated at the front corner of the rail car in relative isolation as Pyrrha sat beside him making conversation. She seemed perfectly content, seated comfortably but with proper position in mind as a Huntress in a combat mini-skirt logically would, but frankly, the knight looked exhausted, his eyes remaining closed as she amiably spoke to him. Yet despite his spent state, he still did what he could by listening, a small smile gracing his lips and the occasional nod before periodically replying shortly. It was apparent that the Spartan harbored a fair level of fondness for her partner, but as a certain question Blake had been meaning to ask took root in her mind, curiosity drove her to walk over and interrupt.

"How is he?" Blake asked quietly as she approached the pair, deeming it a better idea to direct herself at Pyrrha first instead of the young man the Mistrali was currently engrossed with.

"Blake?" Pyrrha looked up and questioned, a mix of faint surprise at the unexpected presence and lingering gratitude for the catgirl's earlier actions, "Oh, well, he's a little tired but otherwise making a swift recovery!"

"I see. That's definitely good," the ravenette continued, glancing at the blonde who already seemed like he had taken the opportunity to doze off, "Do you... mind if I borrow him for a moment?"

"Ah, um, of course," Pyrrha replied slowly, as if weighing the pros and cons of making such a decision before sitting back. Blake held back a sigh when she realized that the Spartan wasn't about to move.

"Uh... in private?" the faunus-girl pressed on, the redhead blinking at her before registering the request.

"Oh."

And standing up, Pyrrha left her the open seat, Blake giving her a brief nod of gratitude before the Spartan left to join her teammates who were chatting as usual. Well, Nora at least.

It was an awkward moment that the ravenette would usually have chosen to avoid, but it had been a thought that had been troubling her since the moment they had left the Headmaster's office, and now that they faced another reprieve it seemed that the qualm would continue troubling her until she saw it resolved. And as the tired knight now cracked an eye open and shot her a small smirk, she quickly realized that she regretted nothing in walking over and took the seat beside him.

"What's up... _Belle_, was it?" he began weakly but with his smirk growing a little wider.

Blake merely rolled her eyes with a small smile before responding, "I have no idea why those detectives decided to name me after a character in Beauty and the Beast. Though when I think about Belle's affinity for literature, I suppose I can see the connection."

"Mhm. And if what Pyrrha told me about you defeating the Ursa Rex is accurate, then I'd say you have a connection with Beast too, cuz... a _spiraling energy bolt?_ Sounds beastly to me."

As the rail car rolled on, Blake sighed as the passing walls reminded her once again of the previous day's confrontations - and Roman's taunts - once again, "Maybe I've always had that connection with the Beast..."

His smirk fading a bit, Jaune opened his eye fully and glanced furtively at the ravenette, now opening the other as well and picking up his head as he saw her brooding in her own dark cloud, "Hey. The way I see it, 'tis _Beauty_ that killed the Beast back there. You were faced with an opponent, you saw an opportunity, and you took it. You didn't run, you didn't hide, and you didn't wait in the shadows while others did the work..."

Blake turned back to face him, taken aback by the earnest gleam in his eyes as he pointed at her and continued, "...Blake, _you _stayed and helped your friends when they needed you because_ that's_ who you are... and if _that's_ not beauty, then I don't know what is."

Her breath hitched as he placed a reassuring hand on hers, unable to hold back a warm smile at the exhausted blonde as she put aside her usual aversion to touch and placed her other hand above his.

"That's... really sweet of you to say, Jaune."

"Well, consultations are half off from Mondays to Thursdays, so tell all your friends - courtesy from Professor Arc," he replied with a weak chuckle that caused her to giggle with him without her usual restraint, to which he groggily turned his head to her, "And by the way, you have a really nice laugh..."

"Oookay," the catgirl now drawled with an amused grin, retracting her hand to hesitantly pat him on the shoulder as that strange warm sensation rose up within her again and reddened her cheeks, "looks like _someone_ is too tired to regulate their brain-to-mouth filter anymore..."

"Yeah... that may be true," he stated as he ran a hand through his hair, pausing as he furrowed his brows and exhaled sharply in a concentrated effort to wake himself completely, "Whatever I did, it _seriously_ did a number on me. But you wanted to talk to me about something, so what's up?"

With a final sigh, he propped himself up to a fully seated position, turning himself to face the catgirl so he could give her his full attention.

"Well," Blake began slowly, looking down as she momentarily forgot her reason for approaching him in the first place during their surprisingly pleasant conversation, "It was an RPG thing. What does it mean if you can't see someone's level?"

The knight, taken aback at the somewhat unexpected question, quirking a brow as he replied, "Like, you can't find it or something?"

"No, I can find it... but it shows up as only a question mark. And I'm almost certain that using my Observe skill would yield equally minimum results."

"Hmm," the Arc sat back pensively, rolling the possibilities through his mind before speaking up, "Well, monsters in games have levels that appear as question marks if their levels are much higher than yours..."

"_Monsters?_"

"Yeah," Jaune replied coolly until he noticed the color draining from her face, some concern now evident in his voice as he asked, "Why. Who are we talking about here?"

Blake blinked, forcing herself to take another breath and admitting with her exhale, "Ozpin."

Now completely awake, Jaune's mouth opened and closed a few times without making a sound, the gears in his head whirring as he tried to make sense of it, "I mean, there could be a few reasons for that... I think. I'm sure there's an explanation."

Blake looked down as she twiddled her thumbs between her lap, shaking her head morosely, "I don't know. All I know is that I must continue to get stronger to find out. And not just that, but to keep what happened at the pavilion from ever happening again."

"Hey," Jaune assured softly, smiling as she looked back up at him with curious amber eyes, "You got this. And you definitely have what it takes to do things that Remnant has never even _seen_ before! Don't worry, 'kay? We'll figure it out."

The catgirl managed a warm smile at the caring knight until her realist side kicked in again and she concluded with a solemn tone, "I sure hope so. Oum knows what could happen if the forces that set these events in motion were let loose on the world..."

* * *

**A/N: _Boom._**

_Heh okay, maybe this chapter wasn't mic-drop worthy (or pencil-drop worthy in this case), but I sure hope you liked it, dear readers!_

_Now, I may speak six languages - four of them Latin-based - but my Latin is terrible. So, I'm sorry if I caused some people to wince at my translation :/ But since I know I'll get asked a lot about it, here is the English version of Jaune's incantation:_

**_A knight is sworn to valor.  
_**_**His heart knows only virtue.  
**__**His blade defends the helpless.  
**__**His might upholds the weak.  
**__**His word speaks only truth.  
**__**His wrath undoes the wicked.  
**__**And this, I swear  
**__**By Crocea Mors Invicta (Invincible)!**_

_Look familiar? ;)_

_Anyway, thank you all so much for your continued support in reading this story! So this is **definitely** the longest chapter I've written on FFNet, and with good reason. Jaune and Blake's budding friendship gets put to the test, Blake is introduced to the idea of a slow-burn relationship, and their mission is brought to a rocky completion! Not to mention that they've caught wind of possible foul play at Beacon... but where from? *DUN DUN DUUUN*_

_As a final note, I probably should clarify what I've stated to some readers as not using OCs in this fic: I'm not using OCs... they're more like, **NPCs** :P haha terrible loophole, I know. But I couldn't resist the references :)_

_So as always, **Fave, Follow and Review** to show your support for this undertaking! And a **huge thanks** to everyone who already has! Stay tuned for next chapter, where we'll get a POV from a more... **sinister?**... side? I guess I can call it that. In any case, take care..._

_**And Happy Reading!**_


	6. Hidden Demons

**_Hidden Demons_**

* * *

"Ben... hey Ben, right?"

"_Tom_."

"I _do_ apologize... So, _Tom_, I heard you talkin' to your pal Jerry over there a couple minutes ago..."

"And?"

"_And... _I happened to hear that you plan on taking your girl out later. What's her name?"

"It's... Elaine."

"Beautiful name. Seems you kids have been goin out for a while now. How long?"

"Couple months."

"Couple months? Wow. That's big... You pass second base with her yet?"

"Um, kinda."

"...What on Remnant is _kinda?_"

"..."

"Alright, fine. That was a personal question... well, listen. I'll ask you something else. What're you two gonna do tonight? Fish fillet and a Coke? Go to a Redbox, rent a little romantic comedy, go back to mom's house, sit on the couch?"

"H-How'd you know?"

"Just paying attention, that's all. You're a prison guard - a dependable person. That's what you're going to do... But d'you know what you _should_ do?"

The young guard now turned slightly to look at the lone prisoner shrouded in shadow in the cell he was guarding as the prisoner continued smoothly.

"You need to lay down some _real_ green... and treat your lady right. You know, you need to take her to a nice place. Red Lobster. Olive Garden. Tablecloths. Soft music. And then you skip this whole _Redbox_ thing. Girls want to go _out_. Especially a girl... as cute as _your_ girl, y'know?"

The young guard nodded enthusiastically in agreement, now completely engrossed in the prisoner's advice.

"She wants to be _seen_. That's why she dresses up. So you take her to the movies..."

Another nod from the guard.

"...A little popcorn-drink combo."

"True. True," the guard concurred flatly as the prisoner rolled with it.

"Elaine might want a hot dog and some nachos... so you shell out for that, too. And before you know it, she's cozying up the way she never would've at her mom's house, you know?"

"You know what... you're right!"

And sitting up in the shadows, a gleam of a grin could be seen through the darkness as the prisoner threw up his arms in his final point of persuasion, "Now all of a sudden, _look_. Tom Romero's walkin tall with Elaine Yank-my-Dickinson, all because he dared to dream tonight!"

Completely turning to face the inmate, Tom began to tap his chin in thought, "Yes... but then there's the issue of having enough money..."

And to the guard's surprise, a small wad of high-value lien was suddenly held out between the cell bars, catching his eye as he merely stared at the considerable amount of money for a moment.

"H-How'd you have all that on you!?"

"I always keep a little sumthin sumthin stashed in the ol' bowler hat just in case," the smug prisoner continued before pointing at the wad of cash with his other hand through the adjacent space between cell bars, "So that's the choice. _This_ is the dream right here... You gonna be a boy, or a _man?_ What's it gonna be, fella?"

After casting another furtive glance at the cash with a pensive expression, the young guard narrowed his eyes at the inmate, "What's the catch, Torchwick."

Merely turning his cash-less hand up to hold up a finger, he replied innocently, "Just _one_ phone call. I get a phone call, right?"

Tom sighed in thought, taking a final look at the wad of money before slowly nodding and taking the cash with a reluctant smile, "Alright, Roman. _One_ phone call. I'll walk you to the phone booth in the corridor next door. _Five_ minutes."

As the prisoner stood up and replaced his bowler hat to let the guard unlock the cell door, he couldn't help but mumble under his breath, "That's four more minutes than I'll even need..."

* * *

3:27 PM.

That display on Ruby's desk clock across the room was what Blake remained focused on as she and Jaune sat side by side on a pair of chairs pulled out for them while the knight was grilled by a mixture of teams RWBY and JNPR in a show of curiosity, concern, or downright confusion.

"I really don't know where it came from, I barely have any idea what I was _saying!_" Jaune defended once more, the two teams not having been in the dorm for too long after arriving at Beacon from the breached pavilion in Vale.

"It was a fairly intricate incantation for someone who hasn't used such skills before," Ren observed, likely the calmest person in the room at the moment, "I suppose all Weiss was trying to say is that something must've happened for you to recall it back there."

"_Exactly_, thank you," the heiress agreed, momentarily uncrossing her arms to motion at the stoic in a gesture of gratitude, "But seeing that his semblance is unique in that it's a family-inherited ability, it very well may have provided the dunc- I mean, _Jaune_, with a limited memory pool of uses for Crocea Mors upon its manifestation."

She then turned to the blonde knight with narrowed eyes, "And I doubt I'd be mistaken in assuming that this _is_ the first time this occurs, correct?"

Jaune nodded meekly, Blake now observing that even though the heiress' icy glare on the Arc was present as always, it somehow seemed to have lost some of its sharpness.

Walking over to his other side in thought, Ruby then continued with a small pout, "But why'd it activate now? I mean, we've been in pretty tough situations before... even _yesterday_ was pretty bad!"

"I dunno, your guess is honestly as good as mine right now," Jaune continued, sheepishly scratching the back of his head as he cast a questioning glance at the ravenette beside him, "I hope to figure out more soon, though."

"Well, the good thing is that you're okay!" the young leader now exclaimed with a grin, lightly placing her hand on his shoulder and rubbing a small circle on his back.

Pyrrha's minute reaction of hitching her breath caused the catgirl some reluctant amusement. Maybe the Mistrali knew, and maybe she didn't, but Blake could tell that Ruby had grown rather fond of the knight during their time at Beacon. As far as the ravenette could tell, though, Jaune was always only being kind or friendly, but in the fair amount of conversations and scroll messaging between the leaders, Blake could also tell that the closeness was having its effect on the young girl.

The meaningful smile whenever he greeted her, the slight quickening of her breath that her Faunus-hearing would pick up whenever he was close to her, it was all evidence to the simple fact that the girl had developed a slight crush on the lovably awkward leader.

'Heh, it makes sense,' Blake chuckled to herself, 'They do share quite a bit in common in that regard.'

And it could've been that she had never suspected the Arc of being an object of affection from her sister, but Blake was somewhat surprised that Yang hadn't picked up on the possibility as of yet. She seemed to usually be the best at picking up on that kind of thing. Be that as it may, Blake had decided a while back not to comment on it since it wasn't her place. But it wouldn't keep her from enjoying Jaune's misreads of Ruby's subtle hints every now and then. Or even Pyrrha's reaction, for that matter.

"Yes, and we certainly owe him our lives for his actions!" the bronze champion in question added, flashing the knight a disarming smile that he returned in kind.

However, Ruby stepped back as Weiss now reappeared between the Mistrali and the crimsonette, making her way between them towards the center of the room with eyes shut tightly in thought before she began.

"Yes yes, we're all _so_ very grateful. Which now brings us to our next subject of inexplicable salvation," and opening her eyes, the heiress leveled an indicatory point at the vaguely taken aback Faunus girl, "_Belladonna_. Would you mind explaining what exactly _happened_ back there?"

Blake sighed, knowing that this moment would come sooner or later, "It's... my semblance."

The room fell silent, even Nora pausing her side chat with Ren to glance at the ravenette with a quirked brow. Ruby tried to keep herself from gaping by speaking up.

"Uhh... come again?"

"But your semblance, isn't it-" Pyrrha began in curiosity, but was stopped by Blake's raised hand as the catgirl set herself to choosing her next words carefully, her lips pursed once more to the side before conjuring a response.

"It's... not as complicated as it might first sound. Yes, my previous semblance was to create shadow clones of myself, but that was up until yesterday. When we were holding back the breach, I was exposed to large amounts of the Dust that I'd been given for Gambol Shroud when the Alpha Beowolf attacked me... and in the resulting explosion, the Dust must've bonded directly with my bloodstream through my injuries when I flew into a GameStop through the blast."

"But why would that change anything?" Weiss now asked, but without her usual iciness due to her recalling that she had been the one to give Blake that cartridge.

"I dont know," Blake replied with a small shrug, keeping her teammate's remorse in mind, "But if it weren't for the Dust you had given me, I would not have been able to walk out of that store at all - after bonding with me, the Dust must've fused with my aura and healed my wounds at an incredibly faster rate than should be possible with aura alone..."

And pausing for a moment as all eyes were riveted on her, the catgirl mentally braced herself for the bombshell she was about to drop.

"And... uh, it also seems to have fused my aura with the gaming electronics in the store as well... in effect, altering my semblance... and turning me into some sort of video game character."

At that, several jaws dropped at the impossible conclusion, five of the students trading incredulous glances before Nora, who surprisingly was completely serious and unfazed the entire time, slowly walked up to the ravenette and squatted down to her level without breaking eye contact.

"Blake."

Surprised - and slightly unsettled - at Nora's proximity and total serenity at such a strange confession, Blake replied with a tiny crack in her voice, "Yeah?"

"..."

"..."

"_Are you on drugs?_"

Ignoring the shocked expression on Blake and the muffled chuckles from everyone else - including Jaune - Ren walked up and patted the completely sincere hammer maiden on the shoulder.

"Nora."

"Really!" the orange-haired complained, turning and standing as she snapped back into her usual self, "I've seen it before - kittens get all _weird_ and stuff when they're on catnip! Maybe that's what's up with Blake!"

'Aaand _thanks_ for reminding everyone of that little fun fact about myself,' Blake hedged internally with an outward deadpan until Ren raised a brow and cast the catgirl a questioning expression.

"Well..."

"I-I am _not_ on drugs!" Blake shouted maybe a little louder than she needed to, a light blush on her cheeks at her indignation on the question.

Seriously, it was only _one_ time.

And by what she was told by Adam, she had hit on some random white-haired citizen named Yue, entered some sort of philosophical dialogue comparing the cycle of Faunus-Human relations throughout history to a ceiling fan with a White Fang training dummy, and eaten most of the compound's tuna rations before going to sleep and being found completely refreshed the next morning on her bed by her concerned mentor.

In the nude.

Blake shivered at the memory as she mentally repeated, '_Never again._'

"So... that giant energy attack you did was your semblance giving you the ability to make a Rasengan or something?" Ruby asked meekly, to which Jaune sheepishly raised his finger.

"Technically, _not_ a video game..."

The crimsonette raised a brow with a flat glare at the knight before Blake interjected, "It's called a Spiraling Energy Bolt. At least, that's what we're calling it, right?"

Jaune turned back to see the ravenette gazing at him expectantly, to which he nodded before Blake continued.

"Yes, _spiraling energy bolt_. And you're correct, it's been developed off a new attack system that my semblance had given me-"

"An attack system that was able to tear off the head of an enormous Ursa in just one hit?" Weiss interrupted in disbelief.

"Ursa _Rex_," Blake corrected, "And yes, it's a concentrated attack using the attack points I've accrued - Mana."

At that, Weiss surprisingly faltered, stepping back in a moment of silence. However, her place was quickly taken by Pyrrha who spoke up once again with curiosity, "Wait. So Jaune... you knew about this?"

"Well... yeah."

Glancing at the Mistrali who was certainly showing mixed emotions at the thought, Blake felt the need to add some more to the knight's terribly lacking response in this newly tense situation.

"I only became aware of these changes this morning when I realized my previous semblance had ceased to function entirely. Deducing the nature of my new ability, I went to Jaune for advice being that he was the highest authority on the subject of gaming that I could hope to gain access to at the time."

Unable to hold back a small smile as she saw the knight unwittingly rustle up in pride at the compliment, Blake continued with a warmer tone instead of her usual monotony, "As a matter of fact, I can say that it was thanks to him that I ever gained a handle on this semblance in the first place - and therefore, that I ever had the ability to destroy the Ursa Rex when we encountered it at Mountain Glenn."

"And then there's that," Ren now added, his subtle observation skills never failing to miss the deeper meaning, "You seemed to know the identity of an ancient class of Grimm which we hadn't yet learned about. How would you have known what it was, much less known how to defeat it?"

Knowing that his side of the interrogation was due more to genuine curiosity than any sort of accusation, Blake saw no problem in replying directly, "Well, that's where it gets a little tricky. The thing is, I _didn't_ know what it was..."

A raised brow from the stoic.

"...Until my semblance _told_ me. I've been led to believe that, like Jaune, my semblance pulls power - and knowledge - from a greater entity, an unknown will that guides me when I ask it for information on any given target."

As the room fell into a contemplative silence once more at Blake's admissions, it was once again Ren who nodded and hummed as an idea came to mind.

"The Oum Theory. Centuries ago, early mages and predecessors of modern Huntsmen theorized that such a will existed. It was once called the Gaia Theory, but it evolved along with changing scientific and religious ideals in Remnant."

"The Oum Theory?" Jaune echoed in curiosity.

"Yes. It was the belief that all aura came from a common pool, an entity unseen and nigh-omnipotent that guides all of Remnant."

"Monty Oum," Blake drawled in thought, "But I heard it's not a very popular theory..."

Ren nodded slowly as he placed a hand to his chin before continuing, "It isn't. Mostly due to the fact that the only ones who attested to the existence of such a will were particularly gifted individuals of unprecedented power... individuals only known anymore in the lore of eons past, either because those who sense it in the present day wish to escape ridicule or they simply no longer exist."

"Renny really believes in all that mumbo-jumbo that I don't quite get," Nora replied cheerily, taking her solemn partner by the arm lightly to which he returned a small smile, "But he's trained to sense that energy through his aura ever since we were little kids! And if I didn't know any better, I'd say all that training is what got he and I looked at to get accepted into Beacon in the first place!~"

"Well... then what did _you_ do?" Weiss asked the beaming girl with genuine curiosity, to which Blake merely replied flatly.

"Do you see anyone _else_ walking around Beacon with an exploding hammer?"

"...Fair enough."

"So you really do believe in all this?" Jaune half-asked, half-stated in surprise at Ren, mostly because he realized that he had gone nearly an entire school year without learning this about his teammate.

"Yes, despite plentiful criticism from Vale's scientific community, the Ren family have been known to support the Oum Theory for generations," and pausing for a moment, he continued enigmatically at the silent heiress, "And in the right circles among the summit of high society... so have the _Schnee_."

Everyone turning their heads to the suddenly guarded heiress, Ruby spoke up first, "Weiss?"

"Eheh... am I the only one who notices that this is the first time Ren has ever spoken this much at once?"

A cricket-chirping silence.

"Tch, that was an attempt at a _joke_," Weiss now replied with a snooty scoff as she placed both hands on her hips, "But _yes_... I've only ever heard my father speak of it in whispers, though I for one was never truly enlightened on the subject."

And turning to Blake, Weiss surprised the catgirl when she noticed the heiress casting her a concerned glare as she continued, "_However_, whenever I heard him speak of it as a little girl, words like _Mana_ and _The Queen_ were never far behind."

"The Queen?~" Nora echoed with a glint of excitement, an excitement quickly frozen by the icy glare she was shot by the Schnee in succession.

"It's _not_ as glamorous as it sounds. Executives of the Schnee Dust Company would also refer to it as _The Fallen Angel_ or _The Red Queen_, but judging by the fear in their voices whenever they held those hushed conversations, I could only infer the worst. Somehow, I think all of this is related..."

And turning to the ravenette again, she concluded, "And somehow, I think I can see why so many scientists congregated around the pavilion before our arrival."

"But... why would they be interested in anything that happened to _me?_" Blake asked, slightly unsettled at how the mere subject seemed to be unnerving her teammate as it went on.

"Because despite their fears, recent discoveries have enlightened my father's company and even certain kingdoms about the profitability and uses of Mana... discoveries that have been scrupulously kept out of public eye for _decades_ while findings were finalized. The fact that someone has a semblance which not only utilizes but _weaponizes pure Mana_ would _surely_ bristle a few ears!"

And suddenly, Blake was _much_ more grateful that she and Weiss were able to find reconciliation as peers and friends earlier that year. Her identity as a Faunus now seemed paltry in comparison to the implications should the world find out what powered her new semblance.

"Still, it's difficult to believe so much could happen by just infusing someone with some Dust," Pyrrha mused aloud before she turned her head in the direction of someone's nervous chuckles.

Ruby.

"_Well_," the young girl began, bashfully kicking her foot against the floor before-

_Bark Bark!_

"_Zwei!_" both Ruby and Weiss called out in unison, team JNPR smiling at the love the partners were giving the small pooch that had appeared out of nowhere while Blake slowly released her vice-like grip on the sides of her seat with a grimace, having been startled by instinct at the sudden barking.

"Teehee~" Ruby giggled adorably as the overexcited dog licked and nearly nibbled at her ear before Weiss took over the doggy-cuddling to let her partner continue, "We may have fed Zwei kibbles laced with low-grade Dust ever since he was a puppy... just for funsies. Turns out, he became some kind of superdog in the process, able to handle extreme elements and live several years longer than his breed's normal lifespan!"

Team JNPR merely took a moment to gape back and forth between the crimsonette, the dog in question, and the entirely out of character Ice Princess cooing at it in response.

_Arf! Rrrrr, Arf Arf!_

And having had his fill of love from the two girls, including Weiss who had now recovered from her somber mood after holding the adorable canine, Zwei scampered across the room onto Blake's bed into the legs of a content albeit silent Yang.

"What about you, Yang?" Ruby asked meekly after pausing as Blake hissed at the dog invading her quarters, "Um, you seem awfully quiet about this..."

"Well, _yeah_," the brawler finally began, giving Zwei a final kiss on the snout before standing and walking towards the center of the room looking at Blake, "I mean, Blake is awesome and all, and we know that... But am I the _only_ one who doesn't think we've spent enough time talking about how friggin _awesome_ it was that Jaune went Fate/Zero on all those Grimm!?"

Among the deadpan stares and shocked expressions in the room, it was Ruby and Nora who slowly raised their hands before Yang continued with a nod, "_Thank_ you! I mean, seriously, it's not everyday I get to meet someone with a semblance stronger than mine~"

And taking full control of the room, the blonde showstopper sauntered over to Jaune, gracing him with a sultry smirk reminiscent of a hunter stalking an unknowing prey as she traced a line around his shoulder between him and Ruby, "Definitely gaining muscle mass... in the arms and core too, by the looks of it... I bet you've been training on the side..."

And turning up over the nervously chuckling knight, Yang did a cheesy snap and point of her fingers along with a sly wink at the suddenly blushing Mistrali, "All a courtesy of Beacon's own Full Metal Huntress, I presume!~ Eh? Eh?"

"I-I, uh..." was all Pyrrha could stammer before her jaw dropped at Yang's sudden action of reaching out and tenderly caressing Jaune's jawline.

"Uh huh," the fiery blonde announced as she traced a finger up from underneath the Arc's chin, the knight himself gulping as he was unsure of what was going on, "This one has _potential_~"

Finally noticing the predatory glint in her eye that she would get before chasing down poor boys in their neighborhood as a little girl in her search for Prince Charming, Ruby immediately squeezed herself between the two blondes to push them apart, "Y-Yang! Cut it out!"

"W-What are you talking about?" Weiss now asked, the crimsonette internally facepalming at the most damned of questions.

Yang scoffed as she turned to face the heiress with a confident smirk and arms crossed in front of herself, "_Duh_, to be my bo-"

_Bark Bark! Awawawawaaaa...!_

"Zwei, no!" Ruby yelled after the dog that speedily raced out of the open door into the hallway, "Everyone after him! Glynda will chew our heads off if word gets out that we have a pet in our dorm!"

Ruby and Weiss immediately sped out of the room after him, closely followed by Pyrrha and Yang who shouted after them, "Pray to Monty that he doesn't find a Dog-Faunus girl on campus!"

Blake and Jaune watched from their seats as Ren and Nora followed soon after, the hammer maiden already sparking conversation as the two went out the door.

"Man, I can't believe Blake and Zwei can use the _Force!~_"

"Nora. The Oum Theory is not The Force."

"It _so_ is~"

"It isn't."

"...I bet Blake can handle lightsabers~"

And with that, the knight and the ravenette were left alone seated in the room to trade incredulous stares... before bursting out into laughter. And if Jaune hadn't noticed it before, he noticed it now - he was really beginning to like Blake's laugh.

It was hearty, yet velvety in tone and inflection, full of genuine mirth in a way that lit up all her features at once. Her amber eyes, her striking complexion... and that smile. _Definitely_ her smile. It was the kind of thing he suddenly felt himself wanting to do whatever he could in order to keep it on her... I mean, after all, they were friends now... right? Though from what he could tell, the only things that could set her off like that was either blatant situational irony or the best displays of wit - things he knew he could be capable of, but only in moments of sincere spontaneity. So he resolved himself right then and there to continue being Jaune Arc and to hope the good times kept rolling.

Wiping a tear from his eye with his last chuckles, he placed a hand on the catgirl's shoulder as she finally managed to calm down as as well, "Ahah... well that was probably the most unexpected end to that little interrogation. You okay?"

Blake reached up and patted his hand on her shoulder a couple times before nodding and standing, finding it strange how in the course of a day she didn't seem to mind physical contact from him as much anymore, "I'm fine, it certainly went much better than my first team interrogation."

"Heh, I'll bet," the knight replied as he stood, replacing the chair at the desk from which it had been taken before facing the smiling ravenette, "Only took about nine or ten hours to tell your team what was going on... Compared to an entire weekend of silence last time, I'd say you're _definitely_ making progress. Heck, next time, you may just come around to opening up to them in a few minutes!"

Rolling her eyes at him, she merely replied, "Hilarious. Like I said, I do what I want. Comes with the heritage..."

Chuckling at how Blake pointed up to her wiggling bow, Jaune shot her a small smirk as he retorted, "Well how do you feel now?"

Raising a brow at the somewhat unexpected question, the faunus-girl's smile faded a bit before returning after a short pause to reflect, "_Better_... actually. Much."

"Well that's because you opened up to trust those who had done everything they could to earn it. It's a good feeling, y'know, and the fact that you did it by your own choice is probably why you're feeling way better about it!"

"And _you_ would know?" she replied with a challenging smirk.

"Actually, yeah," the knight answered plainly, recalling his admission to his partner months ago on the rooftop, "It isn't healthy for someone to go around bottling up their secrets. It just makes for lots of B-rated drama that no one has any time for anyway. And that definitely applies to me too."

Nodding at the now unsurprising tidbits of wisdom from the blonde, Blake remarked, "And you prove yourself wiser than your years once again, Jaune. I... really appreciate that kind of thing."

"It's nice to be appreciated," he quipped with a smirk before suddenly glancing back and forth between the ravenette and the door, "Anyways, uhh... shouldn't we like, join everyone to search for Zwei?"

Blake merely glanced up at a lock of hair that had fallen in front of her eyes, going cross-eyed a bit as she focused on it before blowing it away from her face which caused the knight to chuckle again, "Would it be wrong to say that I don't mind if that mutt gets lost forever?"

Deadpanning at her, Jaune then did what he was used to doing to his one younger sister when she would say something cheeky - quickly reach out and tussle her hair so that a whole bunch of it fell in front of her face, "_Yes_."

"Heeey!" Blake drawled in protest as she tried parting her hair again while the smug knight turned to walk towards the door. But her feline instincts kicking in during her moment of mock-indignation, she zeroed in on his back with a mischievous meow and pounced, landing beside him and shoving him before he could react.

This, of course, sent him to the floor. But turning up to face her with irked surprise, his expression softened as she stretched out a hand to help him up with a satisfied snigger under her breath before he replied, "I guess I deserved that, didn't I."

"You did."

"Fair enough," he grunted as he stood up with her help and brushed himself off before glancing at her bow, "Hey, that reminds me of something."

"Hmm?" Blake hummed idly, raising a brow as she noticed the knight trying to phrase his next words.

"So I was thinking... if we were playing Who's the Better Killer back at Mountain Glenn, and I technically _won_... does that mean I get to see your ears? W-Whenever you're ready, of course..."

Blake looked up in thought for a moment before giving the knight a stern expression, "You know, from a human to a Faunus... that is not a simple thing to ask."

"I understand," he replied dejectedly, his shoulders slumping as his gaze went to the floor. After having learned of Blake's heritage, it was something that had crossed his mind the few times they had met during the second semester, but he knew he didn't know her well enough to ask such a thing. Until maybe now.

But with the situation as it was between humans and Faunus on Remnant at the moment, he honestly wasn't surprised that asking to see - much less _feel_ \- a Faunus' distinctive physical traits was more of a touchy subject than he had realized.

That being the case, he certainly _was_ surprised when he felt a poke at his shoulder and turned up to see the ravenette gazing at him with a small smile.

"But maybe later."

Grinning at the prospect, Jaune nodded as he replied, "Sounds like a plan!"

"Cool," Blake remarked, the smile on her lips quirking a bit before she suddenly seemed unsure of herself, crossing an arm on front of herself to hold the other as she continued, "So, um... same time tomorrow morning?"

Jaune frowned, unsure of what she meant until the lightbulb went off in his head, "You... you don't mean _training_, do you?"

The catgirl nodded before cracking a weak smile with a shrug, "I don't see why not. Now that our teams know, I'm sure they wouldn't mind us going out to grind this week... and the both of us have plenty of leveling to do."

"True..." Jaune drawled, looking up with a finger to his chin in thought while keeping in mind his afternoon training he was still having with his own partner, "So, a couple hours in Emerald Forest before an hour in the library grinding Observe and fishing for skill books?"

"Mhm," the ravenette agreed with a smile.

"We might face more bosses... things could get dangerous..."

"Better still," she quipped, her smile growing wider.

Jaune glanced at her before smirking with a nod, "I like where your head's at. Let's do it!"

The two students traded warm grins before the knight's expression fell at the sound of some girl shouting across the building.

"Ow! Where'd this dog come from!? And- _UWAAAAAAH!_"

"..."

"..."

"Dog Faunus?"

"Dog Faunus."

Jaune facepalmed as he quickly held the door open for Blake to go through.

"Let's go get Zwei."

* * *

"Gah! Stupid contraption, can't get a signal anywhere! It must run on Sprint... oh, here we go."

And finally emitting the desired dial tone, Roman waited in the small call booth while Tom guarded the area around the corner before the video feed came up black.

"I _know_ you're there, Neo. Take your finger off the camera."

Promptly complying, the dark shadow of a fingertip was removed to reveal a short girl with pink and brown eyes on the screen. Blinking at the prisoner, her eyes alternated pink and brown causing him to cringe.

"You mind not doing that? It seriously weirds me out."

"...?"

"I'm _not_ enjoying prison, thank you very much. The food they serve here could make an _Ursa_ cry," he replied gruffly as he straightened out his overcoat with a huff, somehow always able to understand the girl's minute body language and facial expressions.

"..."

"We'll get to that. But first, what's the situation at Mountain Glenn? Anyone gone around poking their grubby noses into the place yet?"

"..."

Roman chuckled as he replied, "Heh, those two little pipsqueaks _better_ have run the clean-up operations. It was _their_ fault that our little operation was ousted while they were busy pretending to be brown-nosing students!"

Neo cocked her head to the side, raising a brow at the prisoner.

"I have nothing to say about her. She's the one who did her part during that little shindig by uploading the tracer virus into the CCT to find this fleet and the possible locations for Mana production centers in the first place. I'm only worried about what happened _after_ I got arrested."

"..."

Roman's brows furrowed as he rolled the girl's wordless explanation in his mind once more for good measure, "What do you mean those pesky Beacon kids came _back!?_"

"...!"

He facepalmed as he shot back, "I _know_ that's exactly what it meant! What _happened_."

"..."

"Beowolves?" he echoed in thought, "That's funny. I didn't think they'd come together in such a large group under the caverns... did anyone die at least?"

Huffing in frustration, the girl shook her head.

"Well that sucks," Roman continued, "How'd they get out?"

"..."

He grimaced as he pieced together that his associate was talking about Jaune's semblance finally manifesting, sighing into his hand held over his mouth as he shook his head, "I've heard that family is the real deal. The higher-ups ain't gonna like this... not one bit."

But then, Neo held up a finger in a 'No, it gets worse' gesture before holding both hands up like claws at the camera with an animalistic scowl.

"And they faced an Ursa?"

The girl shook her head, her pink and brown hair shaking side to side before she held her hands up in a motion to describe it as larger.

"An Ursa Major?"

Exhaling sharply, the ice-cream mercenary took a deep breath and puffed up her cheeks, holding her hands well above her small frame like bear claws while pretending to stomp towards the camera.

"Wait... what's bigger than an Ursa Major!?" the cane-wielding criminal yelped incredulously.

It only took a small impression of a large dinosaur to get some color to run off of Roman's face.

"An _Ursa Rex_... you _gotta_ be kidding me. I'm pretty sure our employer is _not_ happy if they've caught wind of an Ursa Rex encounter so close to Vale already... and that Arc punk actually took that thing down?"

"..."

"Wait... _wait_," he replied slowly, a wicked grin beginning to spread across his face, "_Who?_"

She shrugged before lifting her hand and pretending to lick her wrist like a paw.

"Oho, this is _rich_," he chuckled as he leaned back a bit from the screen, "And you're absolutely _positive_ she used a Mana attack?"

"...!"

Roman continued chuckling darkly, his face hidden behind his hand and down-turned bowler cap as he hummed, "My my, Kitty... the world you've gotten yourself into~"

Slightly startled by the sound of Neo tapping the camera lens, an action which transferred through the speakers in the little call booth, Roman was vaguely surprised that the girl had a finger up with something to add.

As if it weren't scary enough, the prisoner's wicked grin grew even wider as the small girl poked her index fingers of each hand up by her head to look like horns.

"Ehehe... I'd spent _months_ trying to get him to come to see things from our point of view, and in just _minutes_ after seeing his old protege in action at the pavilion, he comes charging. I'm sure they'll know how to handle him."

"..."

"Yes, yes, that just leaves the roles of yourself and yours truly," Roman hedged as he sighed and looked around at his surroundings before directing himself at the girl in an all-business tone, "So where are we with the search through the Atlas compounds?"

"..."

"_Nothing!?_" he nearly shouted at the screen with a growl, "Then what am I even _doing_ here!? So that old fart of a General was keeping his kingdom's secret Mana facilities in Vale after all... clever, but unfortunate. For _him_."

He took a deep breath to calm himself with eyes closed, the mercenary on the other line merely smirking and crossing her arms as she watched him. But he didn't even need to look at her to know what she was asking.

"Alright, I'm still on the airship. Two guards. And one of them made the tragic mistake of taking me right by the control chamber on our way to this booth..."

Opening his eyes, he saw the girl momentarily uncross her arms to gesture at him with her hand in a motion to continue.

"We're nearing the southern tip of Mantle, a few hours away from Atlas itself, and judging by the fact the sun has moved two windows to the right since the same time yesterday, I'd say that we're headed North-Northeast. So you may be able to see the fleet just over the horizon from the southernmost port of Mantle..."

The girl nodded in affirmation before the prisoner concluded pensively, "Now all we need to do is figure out about how high we are from sea level- uh, Neo?"

Glancing at the screen, he realized that the girl wasn't even there anymore.

"Neo?"

_Thwack! Pop crunch! WHOOMP!_

His attention caught by the muted sounds of struggle down the corridor, Roman jumped in surprise when Tom's unconscious form was ungracefully thrown against the glass call booth door, cracking it as the young guard fell to the floor in a motionless heap.

Daintily opening the door and stepping over the beaten guard, he walked towards the grinning umbrella-wielding mercenary as she threw him Melodic Cudgel along with his trusty lighter and spare cigar. Glancing around the corner to see everyone in the control room knkcked out as he lit his cigar, he nodded slowly in approval before glancing at the girl with a quirked brow.

"Not bad. How'd you manage to guess the height though?"

Holding one hand out like a soaring plane, Neo then held another hand above it before bringing her top hand down towards the 'plane' with a sound-less whistle.

Roman held back a chuckle as the girl then patted her wind-rustled hair down to its normal shape, "You... _pfft_, you _free-fell!?_"

Deadpanning at the mastermind as he now broke out in fully-blown laughter at her antics, Neo rolled her eyes before setting her sights on the downed guard by the call booth, her miffed scowl now turning into a sadistic grin. Walking over to the guard as she now unsheathed the hidden blade in her umbrella, Neo readied her blade as her eyes alternated between pink and white, poised to deal the final strike before her stab was deflected by a swift flick of Melodic Cudgel.

"Ah ah," Roman interjected, the sudden interruption causing the girl to gasp silently in surprise, "Nothing riles up the Feds like having a cop-killer on the loose. And I'd rather _not_ have that label added to my name... this week."

And casting a final glance at the young guard who lay broken on the floor but still breathing, he added, "Besides, I kinda like the guy. Wouldn't want to totally ruin his date night, yeah?"

Neo somehow scoffed without making a sound, sheathing her blade with an upset flick of her wrist before crossing her arms and staring at the cane-wielder as she tapped her boot on the ground repeatedly and waited for further instructions.

"Oh _c'mon_, I'll make it up to you by robbing an ice cream store together for your favorite flavor! Like we always say - A little murder, a little mayhem, a couple o' laughs!"

At that, Neo's entire countenance brightened considerably, the short girl taking the ex-inmate by the arm as she readied her teleport back to Vale.

"Besides," the smug thief added just before the girl lit up in a flash of pink and white aura that promptly engulfed them both, "I'm sure our Head Honchos back at Beacon already have their hands full anyway..."

_FLASH!_

* * *

'_Ozpin, this is the last straw... You have left us no other choice!_'

"..."

'_Ozpin, are you even paying **attention!?**_'

"Hm?" the Headmaster drawled disinterestedly at the screen and at the shrouded councilman who seemed like he was about to blow a blood vessel, "I believe we were conversing about the Mountain Glenn incident earlier, yes?"

'**_Yes!_**' the councilman continued with what was nearly a shriek before catching himself and attempting to calm down by clearing his throat, '*_ahem_* ..._Yes. Your decision to send two unsupervised FIRST-YEAR teams to an active Grimm site has forced our hands_...'

"And I presume it brings you great pleasure to present me the verdict," the lone Headmaster hedged in his office before taking another sip of coffee, clearly no longer trying to keep up pretenses with his relationship to the Vale Council.

'_This... has NOTHING to do with our differing ideals,_' the shrouded man retorted, '_But as per yesterday's conversation, it is your inexcusable disregard for the policies as Headmaster of the prestigious Beacon Academy and questionable decisions in the face of a public threat as reported by General Ironwood that we are no longer considering your impeachment as Headmaster... we are **demanding** it._'

"I see you've made up your minds."

'_Most assuredly. And we have already made the arrangements, as you will see shortly... That being said, the council can now only wish that you live long and **prosper**, Mister Ozpin,_' the councilman concluded with a venomous sarcasm on the word _Mister_.

A ghost of a scowl appearing on his lips as the call was ended, Ozpin merely sighed before taking in the last of his mug of coffee in a long swig. The sun had just set, darkness beginning to take hold over Vale as the Headmaster lit a single candle on his desk.

"It was... it _is_... for the greater good," the silver-haired professor quietly confessed before the elevator to his clock tower office caught his attention with a _ding_, three men in cloaks now striding into the room.

"Councilman Sun-Il, I presume," Ozpin stated at the hooded men that entered the range of the candlelight a few feet from the desk, the middle of whom removed his hood to reveal a middle-aged man with light green hair.

"Ozpin."

"And company?" the Headmaster asked from his seat, glancing at the two men accompanying the visitor, "I wasn't aware that paperwork from the council now took more than one Councilman to fill out... how bureaucratic."

"Hmph," the green-haired councilman retorted with a repressed snicker, "We at the Valean Council are well aware that men in power seldom take well to being forcibly removed from said power. Consider my brothers as insurance - Councilman Rin and Councilman Wayne."

Motioning at the two men in question who removed their hoods to reveal that one wielded a broadsword and the other, a pair of holstered twin daggers, Sun-Il continued at the Professor, "Though the paperwork _does_ take a few weeks to fill out, this is merely a courtesy notification on behalf of the Council to inform you that after the forms are filled and further investigation into staff and school grounds is completed, we will report our findings to the Council... and Lady Goodwitch will be taking your position as Headmaster. The process will likely be completed by the Vytal Tournament."

Standing up with cane in hand, mug left on the table, Ozpin calmly walked around his desk to stand in front of the councilmen, an amused brow raised in question.

"Oh? A couple of _weeks_, you say?"

"A simple cordiality, I assure you," Sun-Il replied with a mocking smile, "But I can guarantee that with my fellow councilmen here, we can have the paperwork and investigations filed within a few _days_."

Casting a furtive glance at the two men behind him, Sun-Il's smile widened as the men reached for their weapons in warning, "I'm _sure_ you understand. You refrain from interfering with the Council's verdict, and we finalize our work here to present to the Council."

The Professor merely sighed, leaning on his cane in front of him with one hand and lightly pinching the bridge of his nose with the other. Slowly shaking his head, he closed his eyes and then took off his spectacles before daintily placing them on the desk behind him and speaking up.

"No... it is _you_ who does not understand..."

Both hands now over the handle of his cane, Ozpin opened his eyes, the three councilmen stepping back in muted horror at what they saw in the dim candlelight of the isolated office...

"_You will never get the chance_."

And with that, the candle went out.

* * *

**A/N:** _Hi there! **TPS** here! So remember when I said it'd be an average of two weeks or so between chapter updates? Well, there you go! I gotta keep giving some love to my other stories in my profile, which isn't always easy when balancing friends, family, and work :/ So I apologize if the wait was tough, but I do hope the chapter was worth it!_

_Gosh, I don't even know where to begin with thanking people for pointing out the little things in the previous chapter - **Huntre101** for clarifying the dynamics of the **Spiraling Energy Bolt** (and yes, that's what it's called), and several people for pointing out that Jaune (and anyone else in Blake's party) can edit their own stats as well - but I have to say the biggest thanks goes to **MoonShadow's Thoughts** for helping me make sure I wasn't stuffing too much action in a day! I mean... **five** chapters!? Haha :)_

_But in my defense, plenty of really good fics in this site have dedicated 50k+ words into one literary "day" in their stories, not to mention that the makers of RWBY itself dedicated five whole episodes - more than a quarter of its entire first season - to just the Initiation Day!_

_But that being said, I really welcome pointers from those who are knowledgeable on RPGs and RWBY characters - even taking the chance to incorporate conversations I've had from PMs and reviews into the story, in case some of you noticed hehe - but I provide this open-door policy with **one** condition: Don't complain about a problem unless you can offer a solution._

_The guys mentioned above have done just that, and they're totally awesome for it! :D_

_On another note, **no Gamer UI! :( **I know, this chapter was more plot than gaming, and no matter how hard I tried, I simply had to stop the chapter where I did ;) More to come, so stay tuned!_

_And remember, be sure to **Fave, Follow and Review** to show your continued support! Dear reader, I can't tell you how much you guys continue to motivate me to keep this fic alive, so **thanks!**_

_**And Happy Reading!**_


	7. UPDATE

**_Update  
_**_-5/30/15-_

* * *

**Blake:** Is this... is this working?

**Weiss:** Yes, it's working! Now look into the camera and say your lines!

**Blake:** But it's only me. Why would the author want _me_ to do this?

**Ruby:** Cuz obviously you're his favorite, Blake. Even though I'm the one the team is named after... and I have a really cool weapon... and I'm super moe...

**Yang:** Aw c'mon, Rubes! Don't pout like that, everyone knows you're terrible on camera!

**Ruby:** Am _not!_

**Yang:** Need I remind you of your early graduation speech at Signal I recorde- er, _tried_ to record?

**Ruby:** ...

**Yang:** Or the cookie baking tutorial you _tried_ to shoot back in Patch?

**Ruby:** ...

**Yang:** Or our cover of Iggy Azalea's 'Fancy' that we _tried_ to stream and upload to DustTube?~

**Ruby: **_Okay!_ Okay! You have a point!

**Weiss:** _Shush_, you two! *_sigh_* I'm surrounded by dunces...

**Blake: **Umm...

**Weiss:** Not _you! _Okay, we've wasted enough of our readers' time, let's just get this update out of the way. Blake, you're on! And for Oum's sake, remember your lines!

**Blake:** Right! Uh, right... okay... here goes. *_ahem!_*

_Dear reader,_

_I would like to apologize on behalf of my team and of The Phantom Scribe, henceforth referred to as the Author for the remainder of the update. Keeping in line with the rules and guidelines of the online domain known as Fan Fiction dot Net_ \- I don't know what that is - _this update was put together in a script-like format. That being said, this announcement is to inform you, dear readers, of a particular impasse which has been reached by the Author._

_He expressly wished to have the constant action of switching gears between posting chapters to different stories described as "Beginning to have a detrimental effect on the transmission in his literary train of thought" and wishes to have your input as the reader as to the course of action that he should take._

_After thinking it over, the Author has decided that a plausible alternative to updating each story one chapter at a time before moving to another one could be to dedicate two to three weeks at a time to one story before moving on to the next. That way, two to three chapters can be posted in a story during that period of time which would make keeping any spontaneous ideas in line easier and clearer for your reading pleasure. _Hmm, as a reader, I for one wouldn't mind something like that...

**Weiss: **Blake...

**Blake:** Sorry. Continuing where I left off.

_So as you may have already noticed, the Author has made a new poll available on his profile delineating the options. You will see that the option to continue updating one chapter at a time between each story is still available, being that the Author will gladly continue to do so if he knows he has your support. However, if you wish to join the initiative in trying out this new posting schedule, you will also notice that you can also choose which of his three main stories - The Gamer Girl *cough cough* _that's me_, Jaune Arc: The Force Unleashed, or Chronicle - you'd like the first two weeks to be spent on._

_This poll will be up for three (3) days, during which a chapter for Jaune Arc: TFU will be posted because it happens to be what he's working on right now. After those three days, the Author will adopt the update schedule that the majority of the readers choose. That will be all._

_So in the final words chosen by the Author: "So long, and thanks for all the tuna!"_

**Weiss:** _Fish_.

**Blake:** Huh?

**Weiss: **Fish!

**Ruby:** Gesundheit.

**Weiss:** _No_, you dolt! It's the final line - she was supposed to say "So long, and thanks for all the fish!"

**Yang:** Is that supposed to be a reference or something?

**Weiss:** _I_ have no idea. His references are always so strange.

**Yang: **They're as good as puns in my book! But meh, haters gonna hate. Flamers gonna flame... Icers gonna ice.

**Weiss/Ruby/Blake****:** ...

**Yang:** Worth a shot.

**Cardin:** _No, please don't!_

**Weiss:** What was _that!?_

**Blake:** Sounds like Cardin.

**Ruby:** He ran right by us... looks like he's being chased.

**Dove:** _Run! She's crazy!_

**Yang: **Aaand there goes Dove.

**Russel: **_We swear we won't be mean to a soul ever again!_

**Sky:** _No lies - I'm so scared, a little pee just came out!_

**Blake:** Should... we be worried?

**Yang:** Depends on who's chasing them I guess... Oh. Nope. Here comes Nora around the corner... followed by Jaune... and Pyrrha...

**Jaune:** Nora! *_pant pant_* Put the hammer down!

**Pyrrha:** I'm quite certain this is _not_ what Professor Dandelion meant by Team-Building Exercise!

**Nora:** THE BEATINGS SHALL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES!

**Ruby:** Oh, that's right. Jaune and his team volunteered to be tutors for Professor Dandelion's Struggling Teens And Troubled Youth elective... I see that's going... well...

**Yang:** Woot! Go Nora! _Break a leg!_

**Ruby:** Uhh...

**Yang:** Eheh... no pun intended?

**Ren:** Hey girls.

**Ruby:** Oh hey, Ren!

**Blake:** Aren't you going to chase down team CRDL with your team?

**Ren:** Mm, no need. they can handle it. Sunflower seeds?

**Ruby:** Ooh, thanks!

**Yang:** Sure.

**Nora:** AHAHAH, I'VE GOT YOU NOW!

**Cardin/Russel/Dove/Sky:** _UWAAAAAAH!_

**Weiss:** Alright, _that's it._ We've digressed enough. I apologize on behalf of _everybody_ that you had to read this, dear readers.

**Ren:** Heh *_munch munch_* our lives would make a great animated series.

* * *

**A/N:** _Well... nuff said. I hate to have to post something like this so early in the story, but this is matter in which I needed your opinion as the reader asap :/ Anyway, d__on't forget to visit the poll (reviews do **not** count as poll entries)!_

_Edit: Trains totally do have transmissions, by the way. Google it up ;) Not all trains, but some. Just read an interesting review and I thought I'd add that :D_

**_As always, Happy Reading!_**


	8. Knightshade

**_Knightshade_**

* * *

Suave. Cool. Chill.

If there were any three words that could describe Neptune Vasilias, it'd be that very trifecta of adjectives highlighting his charm, appeal and composure. Well... those words, and _Charm_, _Appeal_ and _Composure_.

To him, they were the foundation of his personality, the Trinity of his being, and if they were all in balance then so was he. But right now, he felt his persona being knocked off balance as the latter of the three was beginning to crumble.

"Wha! W-Who would check out the Official Strategy Guide for the new Super Smash Bros game so soon!?"

Narrowing his eyes at the empty spot in the library shelf, the only possible culprit came to mind, "_Jaune_... trying to one-up me and Sun so soon, eh?"

Quickly regaining his composure, the blue-haired fashionista popped his immaculate collar and spun on his heel to give the library a quick once-over. No Jaune. So he did the smoothest thing that came naturally to him - idly snatching the day's newspaper from another shelf at the edge of the aisle, he walked forward and nimbly spun to avoid the librarian who was currently carrying too many books to see him before lowering himself in the same motion onto a nearby seat at a table, all while gingerly taking a ridiculously expensive cup of brand-name coffee - and catching the name scribbled onto it - out of the hand of the girl he was now sitting next to with a wink.

"Thank you, Susan."

Not even getting mad at him, Susan and her two friends sitting with her merely sighed in longing at the handsome young man as he took a sip and snapped the newspaper open to provide cover for his little stakeout. Not that it would take long.

Because if it was one thing the Haven visitor could count on, it was his uncanny sense of timin-

"Bingo. Target at twelve o'clock."

"Mhm? Well you can set your sights on _me_ anytime, stud~"

"Susan... I'm kinda doing something important at the moment."

Rolling his eyes as the three girls sighed again in unison, Neptune focused on the knight who had just entered the library...

With _Blake?_

"Whoawaitwhoa... _what?_" he now mumbled under his breath as they both did indeed seem to be entering together.

They were still quite a distance away... Neptune figured that it must be some sort of coincidence. Maybe they had just happened to enter the library at the same time? He watched closely, peeking over the top edge of the newspaper as the pair seemed to continue walking together towards a table- wait. Jaune looked like he was parting ways with Blake at the corner of a large table, who seemed to have her head buried in a book as she continued forward without even noticing that they were separating.

"Heh," he chuckled in realization, "I guess it really _was_ a coincid-oh."

His words stopped cold in his mouth as Jaune suddenly realized that the ravenette was no longer walking beside him, to which the blonde quickly turned to find her and gently reached out to grab her by the arm over the corner of the table they were diverging by. And if that weren't enough, Neptune's jaw dropped even a little lower as the catgirl turned her head up with slight surprise and looked over to him with a smile... a _smile!_

Neptune could still vividly remember the unmistakeable _hissing_ that had come from that same girl when Sun had tried to give her a surprise hug a few days before! The two guys had been satisfied with her explanation at the time - Blake saying that she really didn't like to be touched and that surprise contact would put her on edge - but as he watched the girl slowly backtrack and rejoin the knight contentedly, burying her head once more in the book she was reading as he led her to a table at which they now sat together, the blue-haired boy knew this strange event warranted at least a little more investigation.

"Besides, what's a badge good for if I can't do some detective work?" he mumbled to himself as he stood up, taking the newspaper and leaving the coffee cup behind over which the three girls at his table all but clawed at each other to get a hold of first.

Of course, Neptune wasn't trying to discredit the knight's conversation skills or anything - after all, Jaune had practically psyched him back into talking with Weiss at the dance, something the blue-haired student was very grateful for as the result had been their trading of scroll numbers and nearly constant conversation ever since - but in reality, it was more for Sun's sake than anything else.

The blonde faunus had definitely been interested in Blake from day one, as Neptune had come to learn from him, and it looked like Sun had made really great headway when Blake had finally accepted his invitation to the dance. It really was no doubt that the catgirl had enjoyed herself, even going so far as to dancing a song or two with the guy after her first dance with Yang... but to Sun's - and by extension, Neptune's - dismay, the two Faunus had barely interacted after the dance, a stark contrast to him and Weiss.

So as he drew closer to the table and to the admittedly odd pair sitting side by side with their backs to him, Neptune couldn't help but ask himself - Could Jaune actually be the reason that Blake had never really followed through with Sun after the dance?

'Can't be,' the Haven visitor reasoned internally, 'The day after the dance when the southeast district went to the crapper, Blake didn't even bat an eyelash at the guy - aside from her, _exposed_, situation... she even looked happy to see us!'

After getting close enough, but still just out of earshot, he watched Blake and Jaune over the top of his fairly large newspaper as he leaned on the edge of a nearby aisle behind their table. Jaune seemed to be talking very passionately about something, Blake not even turning to face him as she kept her sights glued to the book. Weird. Heck, even though he was practically turned in his seat to talk to her, she wouldn't even nod in acknowledgment - at one point idly turning the page of her book while he was talking right at her!

'Man, the guy just won't take a hint,' Neptune mused, noting the seemingly obvious conclusion that Blake was practically ignoring him entirely as she simply read her book, 'I mean, it took Sun _weeks_ to have a single conversation with her that kept her attention for more than two minutes... And that was at the _dance!_'

And despite it all, it was apparent that Blake really _was_ grateful for all Sun had done for her up until then... but at this point, it was also pretty plain to see that things between her and Sun - and clearly anyone else, for that matter - just wasn't going any further than 'Just Friends'. And with a week having passed since the dance, classes starting again the next day, Blake still didn't seem to have any reason to be particularly comfortable with any one person's company.

But if that were the case, why was she currently putting herself through listening to the incessant yapping from _Jaune Arc_, of all people? What could those two _possibly_ be finding a reason for to even be within a football-field's distance from each other? And what in Monty's blessed Remnant could they even be _talking_ about right now!?

And as he took a few more steps closer to hear what Jaune was saying, his questions were answered - to which his jaw dropped, leaving his mouth in an _O_ of shock - as Blake made the first movement acknowledging Jaune's presence in showing him what she was reading, pointing out something in what he could now see was none other than The Official Strategy Guide for the New Super Smash Bros.

"Guess you're right. Samus really _did_ get nerfed in the new Smash Bros game."

Neptune blinked at the sight, unable to process what he was seeing, 'What the flying Boarbatusk is happening right now.'

"_Exactly! _And _that's_ why I was saying it this whole time!" Jaune retorted animatedly, his same expression present as it had been before, "I've had to change my whole lineup in order to keep up with Neptune and Sun now!"

"Sounds like _excuses_ to me," the ravenette remarked snidely with a smirk, nudging the blonde who merely scoffed in response, "Who do you mainly use now?"

And with that, he turned a few pages for her, pointing at the green-themed swordsman in the book and continuing with his previous ardor, "Link. Hands down. A kid in over his head who finds a sword that helps him finish the quest he started... kinda fits _my_ story more than I realized, once you think about it... D'you find anyone you'd like to try?"

Neptune listened on in disbelief as the catgirl hummed for a moment in thought, pursing her lips to the side as she always would while turning a few pages of the book before finding the desired section and and lifting it for her companion to see, "Here. This... Sheik and Zelda character... has a few similarities to myself that I can't help but relate to. One form relies on stealth and agility, while the other resorts to powerful energy attacks from within. I can't help but feel that I'd be more attuned to either move set."

"Yeah," Jaune added pensively, taking the book in his hands and re-reading the section closely, "Too bad you can't switch between the forms anymore, but I think you'd play a pretty decent Zelda. Heh, I can already imagine the guys reacting to your new Smash Bros skills - _our_ Link and Zelda against _their_ Falco and Donkey Kong!"

The blue-haired student quietly scoffed, both in disbelief that Blake had ever taken an interest in such an unexpected game and at the possibility of her beating _him and Sun_ with that character too! But video games aside, he had to admit that the real cause of his concern was just how easily Jaune had taken to chatting with a girl he himself had previously thought was nigh-unapproachable. No stuttering, no mumbling... Neptune thought Jaune had previously only been capable of such an easy-going conversation with Pyrrha, but apparently that was no longer the case.

However, as Sun's friend and eternal partner in the broforce, Neptune saw an opportunity to make himself known and took it in an attempt to see where the monkey-faunus' chances still lay with the catgirl. Besides, he felt icky having eavesdropped for so long.

"Don't Link and Zelda get together in the end?"

Startled by the sudden voice from behind, Jaune jumped in his seat, turning his head quickly to the source of the voice as did Blake. Though she seemed rather calm, Jaune began to blush as he stuttered a rebuttal.

"B-But that's only implied in some of the more recent games! It's more fanon than anything!"

"Still," Neptune replied smugly, his interruptions always smooth enough to simply insert himself into a conversation, "I'd say a few brows might be raised if you two play Smash Bros with a pairing."

He mentioned it while glancing at Blake to see what reaction she'd give to such an insinuation, but to his chagrin it was anything but promising.

"And?"

_And?_ Judging by her perfectly flat expression aside from a raised brow, the Haven student realized that without even an objection to such a possibility as Jaune was sputtering forth, Blake really did seem quite comfortable with the knight.

Neptune now had his answer. In the span of about a week after the breach in Vale, Blake and Jaune had actually managed to strike up a decent enough friendship. How exactly it had been done was beyond him... but he just hoped that Sun still stood a chance.

"Meh. Just a thought," Neptune shrugged it off coolly before turning his attention to the blonde Arc, "So what you two been up to?"

With a quick nervous chuckle, Jaune ran a hand through his hair while casting the ravenette a furtive questioning glance, to which she shrugged in their silent conversation as if giving him permission to be completely candid with the new party in it.

Neptune had to give credit to their ability to speak without speaking as Jaune answered, "Well with Blake's new semblance and all, we've pretty much been training all week, going out to the forest to hunt Grimm and coming to the library afterwards to study up on different books that can help us."

"Oh yeah, Weiss told me about that," the blue-haired visitor continued, "Blake's like a video game character now. That's cool."

"I'm sure she has," Blake now spoke up with just a touch of suggestion in her voice, "I see her on her scroll quite a bit more often these days..."

Neptune chuckled knowingly, now definitely aware that she had caught on to his attempt to tease them as he folded up the newspaper in one hand and playfully pointed at them both to keep her from turning the tables on him, "Hey now, leeet's not change the subject - we're still talking about _you_ two here! So I bet after all this time chilling out, you two've already come up with some kind of gaming _team_ name, am I right?"

"Uh... that's not a thing," the ravenette replied stoically before quirking a brow and shooting Jaune a questioning glare, "Is it?"

"Sure it is!" Neptune quipped in reply, "Team Razer, FNatic, Team Lads, Team Gents..."

Jaune raised a hand to Neptune indicating his valid points before replying, "What he said... though I'm not so sure about those last two..."

Thinking it over for a second with her gaze to the floor, Blake finally shrugged as she raised her idle amber-eyed gaze to the knight, "Well... I don't see why not. It'd certainly make naming our parties easier... especially compared with some of the _other_ names you've come up with lately..."

"What! _Gurren Lagann_ was a perfectly decent party name last time!" Jaune complained, throwing his hands up in the air in his emotional riposte.

"How about Laughing Coffin?" she retorted flatly.

"Killing Grimm and having plenty of laughs as we did it. _Totally_ acceptable!"

"...And Team Rocket?"

"..."

Neptune snorted, holding back a chortle as Jaune facepalmed in defeat, "_Alright_... I guess we can use a decent duo name... How about Lunar Eclipse?"

The ravenette paused for a moment, looking up in thought as she tapped a finger to her chin before making a decision.

"Doesn't really make sense..."

"How about Dark Knight?" Neptune offered with a shrug, now having given up on finding any cracks in their evidently solid relationship.

"Closer," Blake mentioned with a small smile, "I think you're onto something with that one..."

The three students remained silent for another pensive moment, each racking their brains for decent ideas before Jaune snapped his fingers in realization, "I got it! _Knightshade!_"

"Knightshade?" Neptune echoed with a raised brow.

"Yeah, Knightshade! Like, _Belladonna_ is a flower also known as a nightshade, right?"

A nod from the catgirl.

"...and _Knight_ sounds exactly like _Night_, right? So... Knightshade!"

Jaune was kept from continuing by an upheld hand from the ravenette who had her eyes shut in thought and who now couldn't hold back a light chuckle any longer, "That... is _so_ dorky..."

The knight's jaw slackened in evident disappointment until Blake opened her eyes with a wide smile to finish her thought, "...But it just might stick."

"Heh, it's catchy, I like it!" Neptune decided coolly before turning to the bright-eyed girl, "But I still have _no_ idea how you put up with alllll _that_ so easily!"

Pointing at the knight in indication, Neptune laughed as Jaune retorted in mock-offense, "_Hey!_"

But still, Blake crossed her arms at the young knight she was sitting next to, her smile having simmered down into a teasing smirk as she concluded, "Well, his antics certainly have a way of growing on you."

And with that, Neptune finally understood.

It was pretty obvious that in the broadest sense of the word, Jaune was a good guy. Sure, he had his quirks and social misgivings, but given the chance, Jaune was the kind of guy who could bring out the best in a person. Neptune recalled having experienced it himself at the balcony during the school dance, having been all but reprimanded and regeared by the guy to turn back around and give Weiss the treatment she deserved.

And after it all, Neptune could only be grateful for what the Arc had done - thanks to his advice, he'd been able to get to know the seemingly icy heiress whom he'd honestly already grown fond of by that time. And now that he thought about it, even _Weiss_ had seemed to ease up on the guy in the past few days, berating him less than she might've at first. Sure, she had her reasons, but Neptune had learned about them and could relate to those same reasons as Blake herself now even admitted to one of them.

So all in all - as the suave, cool and chill guy that he was - the Havenite could respect that bond.

"So... you guys gonna return that strategy guide?" the blue-haired student now asked, glancing at the book long-forgotten on the library table, "Or are you two gonna continue daydreaming about your delusions of beating the unbeatable duo that _is_ SEA MONKEY?"

The three students traded intense glares for a long moment before Neptune and Jaune busted out in laughter, eventually quieted only by the shushing of distant students in their studying areas as Blake merely shook her head with a small smile.

"Well, I suppose we can check it in now," she began thoughtfully as she picked up the book, to which Jaune grabbed the other end before she could give it to Neptune.

"Don't forget to observe it... don't wanna waste a good chance to grind, y'know!"

"Heh, you guys are even on a gaming-term basis and everything," the Havenite mentioned with a chuckle before raising a brow at the ravenette, "But what does _observe_ mean?"

Blake's eyes widened a bit upon realizing the ambiguity of her term usage with anyone who wasn't Jaune, cocking her head to the side before explicating further, "Hmm, the easiest way to explain it is as a base skill in an RPG game - just a way to gather info on a desired target at a whim. It's one of many that I've obtained, some passive and some active."

"Ah, I see," Neptune replied, "Active as in for fighting?"

"Correct. It applies to most dynamic actions in combat, really. Between my aura and fighting methods, I've leveled most of them up with Jaune in the past week to the point of being able to one hit kill most low level Grimm regardless of Gambol's weapon form."

"Nice!" the blue-haired visitor replied, both to the fact of the feat and to her continued accurate usage of gaming terms.

"Yeah, the only problem now is that the whole RPG rule applies to her leveling system too," Jaune added factually, "Once you reach level ten or so, leveling up gets a lot tougher. Same goes for individual skills. So, we're either gonna have to find a way to kill a lot more low-level Grimm in a lot shorter time, or find ourselves some stronger Grimm."

Blake nodded as she now turned her sights to the book in her hands, "Or _both_... anyway, time to get this out of the way. _Observe_."

**_PING!_**

**[_Observe_'s level has risen by 1.]**

"Hmm, it's about time," Blake noted aloud as she closed out the following window about the strategy guide itself, "It took almost two days to level up Observe this time."

"You finally got it to level up again?" Jaune asked excitedly.

"Yep," she replied with a warm smile, "Got it to level nine now... I think?"

Neptune nodded, impressed but maintaining his cool demeanor as he asked, "Sounds nice, does it work on people too?"

"Sure. _Observe_."

* * *

**Name: Neptune Vasilias  
****Class: The Crackshot****  
****Level: Lv15 _(Nxt lvl: 98.6%)_  
Rank: C_ (Att: C | Def: D | Sem: C)  
_****Race: Human  
****Title:_ The Dude  
_****Attributes: Suave, Cool, Chill**

**...**

**HP: 900/900  
****AP: 700/700**

**...**

**STR: 28**

**VIT: 39**

**DEX: 26**

**INT: 17**

**WIS: 9**

**LUK: 11**

**...**

**Status: Status Effect _[On Point _(intermediate)_]_**

**Background: A ****calm, collected, and respectful individual with a carefree personality. Maintains a positive impression with people he meets and often hangs out with his friend Sun Wukong, who describes him as being cool. Prone to flirting with girls and fashion-conscious, he also has an intellectual side. However, his**** tendency to protect his reputation can sometimes make him inconsiderate of the feelings of others.**

**Is also terrible at keeping secrets.**

**Emotions: Curiosity. Wonder. Mellow.**

* * *

"Well _that's_ interesting..."

"What happened?" Jaune asked, realizing that there was more to the catgirl's expression as he noticed her furrow her brows.

"There's more information given once _Observe_ reaches level nine. Much more."

Neptune quirked a brow as he questioned, "Like what?"

"Your general stats," Blake began matter-of-factly, "Like how strong, tough, agile, smart, wise and lucky you are. Then the things we know, like how you always seem to be on point and have an intellectual side..."

"Oh, that's nifty I guess," the Havenite shrugged before the catgirl continued.

"But then it gets into the things people may not know, like the trouble you tend to get yourself into while trying to protect your reputation..."

At that, Neptune narrowed his eyes at Jaune, who merely raised his hands placatingly and vehemently shook his head in his innocence, "Is that _so?_"

"Yes," she added quickly, wanting to diffuse the growing tension as quickly as possible, "Just like I know that your emotional state went from curious, wonderment and mellow a moment ago to _suspicious_, _confused_, and _in denial_..."

"Anyone could see that right now."

"...And, that you're terrible at keeping secrets."

At that, Neptune broke his surprisingly frigid glare at Jaune to glance at the ravenette in surprise, knowing that his partner would never reveal that kind of information to anyone, even if it were to his own subject of affection.

"Well then, now I just got the feeling like I'm having my palm read or something..."

"It's... how my semblance works," Blake offered softly, hoping that her aura's naturally accurate readings would spare the knight whatever ill will the Haven student might be harboring. Thankfully, Neptune's expression softened as he cast a slightly downcast expression at the blonde.

"I guess it is... sorry, dude. Didn't mean to assume."

"No worries," the blonde replied with relief evident in his own voice, "It took me a while to believe it at first, too... but she's able to do some truly _amazing_ things! I mean, she always has, which is why she's here and all, but you know what I mean..."

Catching the light blush on Blake's face as the knight spoke, Neptune merely shook his head with a small chuckle before holding up a hand to stop the knight and spare his companion, "Yeah, I know what you mean... and whatever it is, it sure sounds like a heck of a gift to have just come about by chance, y'know? So... take care of it... and take care of _her_, Jaune. It's clear to see you know her potential better than anyone else."

As Jaune and Blake turned to each other and traded a warm smile at Neptune's words, the Havenite himself smirked inside, knowing that he'd now made things even between himself and his new friend. He knew Sun enough to know that the monkey-faunus wouldn't just give up so easily and knew that with some luck Blake could still have a change of heart, but he owed Jaune a solid after the dance and had finally repaid it in full in accordance with his own code of honor - the universal Bro Code.

Now satisfied with his work in the library, Neptune reached in between the two students, unceremoniously breaking their short-lived moment as he picked up the strategy guide and gave them a quick salute, "Well, I guess I should be going. Weiss said she was gonna do something real quick and meet up with me for lunch later, so it looks like I'll kill some time with this bad boy over at the ole abode upstairs before lunch. Laters!"

Watching the stylish student walk away, Jaune rubbed his arms with a shiver, noting the light goosebumps on the exposed skin under Blake's intruder outfit that she'd taken to wearing all the time now as well before speaking up.

"Heck, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that Weiss must've passed by near the library not too long ago!"

With a light chuckle, Blake turned back to face Jaune with a nod of agreement before the two fell into a short awkward silence with nothing left to do.

After all, it was a Sunday - students usually might go on their own to roam the campus or go to town that day, and Jaune had no previous engagement with any of his teammates... so, why not a friendly lunch with the girl he had already spent all morning with?

"So... uh," the knight began slowly, his face seemingly rehearsing different expressions as he thought of the right way to phrase his next sentence, "I'm gonna head over to the cafeteria to... get some lunch, you're welcome to join."

It had been some advice from his eldest sister, Joan, that had come to mind for some reason at that very moment. Advice about inviting women to a meal, to be exact - avoid questions, as direct requests could make a woman feel uncomfortable, and be sure not to sound demanding. Also knowing that a kitten would rarely do what one asked just because it was _asked_ to, Jaune figured this method was worth a shot.

He couldn't ignore the surprising sensation of hope fluttering from within as her smile went from inquisitive to... something else... her eyes breaking contact with his as she finally chose to glance up in thought before letting out a little sigh.

"That's... actually very tempting, Jaune," she began slowly, her small smile still present as if showing gratitude for the offer yet faltering somewhat at the corners, "But I had planned on going around the campus to test out the extent of my newly leveled Observe skill right after this. Maybe... maybe another time."

"Oh... uh, okay," he replied, feeling the heat quickly rising to his cheeks as the awareness of the polite rejection sunk in. The two students now stood from their seats at the same time, the action causing them to close the space between each other to a mere couple inches before they each quickly scooted back with nervous chuckles.

Giving him a small wave, the momentary reddening in her cheeks now having simmered down to a soft pink, Blake broke the silence cracking a hint of a smile at the knight, "Till tomorrow, then. Take care."

"Yeah," he replied weakly as they both began to part ways, "Take care."

No sooner had they each parted ways and Blake turned the corner of the nearest aisle when Jaune's self-berating began.

'Idiot! Gahhhhh, _idiot!_ Just _had_ to go making it sound all awkward by asking her out to lunch like that! What was I even _thinking!?_ I've already spent _all_ morning hunting and chilling out with her, way to botch my last day with her before school starts again by sounding desperate or something! _Uuugh_...'

Shivering again as he exited the library in deep thought, he failed to sense the presence behind him as he continued, 'Why is this even such a big _deal?_ Stupid, stupid, _stupid_, _STUPID_-'

"-_Gahhh!_"

Before he could even realize, he had been all but yanked off his feet and thrown into a nearby empty classroom. It was large, several concentric rows of wooden desks surrounding a sizable and nearly amphitheater-like area from which the teacher could deliver booming lectures.

Port's classroom.

Turning towards the sound of the classroom door shutting with the lock engaging as well, he could do little more but gape at the form of the elegant young heiress who now strode into the middle of the room, daintily brushing off the frills of her sleeves without a care in the world.

"_W-Weiss?_"

"Upupup! Not a word!" she quipped hastily, her hand lifted and already gesturing at him to shut his mouth before her usually stern expression softened a bit, "At least not until _after_ I explain..."

His shocked gaze slowly melted into one of curiosity as the girl simply shook her head at him with a sharp sigh, turning to Port's desk and walking over before pulling out a few thick books from behind it.

Setting them on top of the desk with loud _thuds_, she wordlessly beckoned him over with a finger to which he complied in his increasing intrigue with her silent actions. He continued watching as she took the top book, flipped through a few pages, and handed him the opened volume pointing at a small paragraph in question.

"Does any of that look familiar to you?"

Jaune read the paragraph. And read it again.

He understood exactly what it was he was looking at the first time, having noticed the title that read _The Schnee Encyclopedia of Chants and Incantations_ the moment she'd picked it up, but he just simply couldn't bring himself to answer her because his brain was furiously trying to rationalize the complete change in her tone of voice.

It was soft, smooth... dare he say _warm?_ It was as if they had known each other for a long time - well, they technically already _had_ known each other for a while - but you know, as if the heiress had known him and could actually _tolerate_ him! It... it was so strange, yet so alluring... he almost hated to give the reply he was about to have to give...

"No. Not even a little bit," he finally stated, bracing himself for the put-downs that were surely to come... but didn't.

No derisive scoff. No demeaning scowl... Had he just entered into the Twilight Zone!?

"Hmm," she hummed simply, gently taking the book from him and flipping through a few few more pages before handing it back like before, "How about that?"

Reading through it, he even tried reading some of it out loud to at least acknowledge the effort she must've been putting herself through to not tear him apart at his ignorance of such surely commonplace knowledge, "_Reducto_... _Expelliarmus_... _Avada Kedavra?_ No, sorry... never heard of any of it."

"I see," she once again stated calmly, a hand to her chin in thought as she watched the book in Jaune's hands and tapped the toe of her boot on the floor repeatedly before walking over to the desk and picking up the next book of the pile. Jaune watched her flipping through the pages until she finally raised a brow and paused mid-movement with a hint of the usual sternness in her voice - but just a hint as she spoke up without turning up to look at him, "Jaune. You're _staring_."

He was about to sputter forth a response to her keen observation when she slammed the book shut, which seemed to snuff out the words in his throat entirely, and then took a deep breath with eyes closed before turning to him with a not-so-icy blue-eyed gaze, "I told you I'd explain, didn't I?"

"R-Right," was all he could eke out in a mix of fear, confusion, and a touch of concern as she nodded and took a step or two towards him, leaving the book behind on the table.

"Very well. I suppose I should get to that lest you suffer some sort of nervous breakdown," she paused with a wince, seemingly chastising herself mentally for the back-handed comment before continuing, "I'd like to begin by pointing out how _invigorating_ it is when someone actually lends a genuine ear of sympathy to your inner qualms. If you need it and haven't done so, I _highly_ recommend it... you'll be amazed at what it accomplishes for your nerves."

Jaune blinked before he managed another response, "R-Right."

"Furthermore, I should probably add an apology to my explanation," she continued with a softened air of professionalism, her hands held behind her back as she barely managed to maintain eye contact with the stupefied knight, "You see, when I came to this academy... when I came to this academy, Perfection was my ultimate goal. My _only_ goal. It governed my demeanor, my principles, and mostly my attitude. All those who fell short of said lofty standard were reviled in my eyes... and I must confess that after becoming aware of how much your actual ability differed from your family's reputation, you were among those I reviled the _most_, Jaune Arc."

"R-Right..."

"A-And I apologize for that!" she added quickly again, eyes widening a bit as she realized she had let another back-handed comment slip, "But I've realized something in the last few days - reflecting on the accomplishments we've made, the things we've learned and the people we've met - that Perfection in its superficial form is an impossible ideal which'll always end in frustration... but its deeper meaning... of being _complete_, _that's_ the fuller sense of the word I've come to realize is worth striving for after all these months at Beacon..."

Jaune thought it over, definitely agreeing with the thought as he drawled in reply, "Right..."

"Could you _please_ say something else," Weiss quipped with a deadpan, a raised brow at the startled knight, "This isn't exactly easy to say."

"Okay..." he managed with an involuntary gulp, "Then why are you telling me all this?"

Weiss paused in thought, her hands now reappearing at her sides and idly straightening out her combat skirt as her gaze remained on the floor before being refocused on the knight himself, "Because Neptune told me what you did for me at the dance. Knowing that without your involvement I would never have reached these aforementioned conclusions with his aid, I wanted to ensure that you knew your actions were... _appreciated_... and this is my way of expressing my gratitude..."

Jaune was only until now beginning to shake off the conditioned physical response of fear in his system, finally regaining mastery of coherency as he remarked, "Well you didn't have to... I mean, I'm grateful that you told me all this, but just a simple thank you would've been more than enough, Weiss..."

"No, that's not exactly what I meant," the heiress continued, catching the knight off-guard with the small smirk now growing on her face, "Me telling you all of this wasn't my show of gratitude... _this_ is."

_SSSHHHIIINNNGGG!_

In the blink of an eye, Jaune saw himself not only three feet to the _left_ where he had been a moment ago, but also with Crocea Mors drawn as Weiss now stood lightly panting where he was previously situated with Myrtenaster drawn in mid-lunge.

"Hmm, _quite_ impressive," she stated matter-of-factly as she straightened out from her yellow glyph-augmented attack and turned to face the flabbergasted knight without too much adulation in her voice, "That maneuver was meant to open a gash in your right arm the size of a cantaloupe, yet you dodged it faster than even _I_ could discern. Your survival reflexes have improved _immensely_."

He glanced at the door, which he now realized was not only locked but _frozen_ shut, and back at the heiress with a fish-like gaping motion, "W-What are you trying to do, _kill_ me!?"

"Sort of," she replied bluntly, "It seems my initial plan of having you recall your family incantations was at a loss - however, I'm not without my secondary devices. Being that your primary semblance manifested at the onset of a hopeless scenario..."

The elegant heiress wiped a bang that had fallen in front of her face neatly to the side, adopting a flawlessly straight posture as she placed said hand on her hip before executing a few effortless but masterful swishes in front of her with Myrtenaster and pointing the sword level with Jaune's neck, "Jaune Arc, this is to inform you that I, Weiss Schnee, have _full_ intention to cause you physical bodily harm. _This_ is my gesture of gratitude - that I aid you in your discovery of every nuance pertaining to your Paladin Semblance! _En garde!_"

_SHING-CLASH!_

And with a combination of his training with the Mistrali, his applied experience with the catgirl, and the inexplicable boost of something... _else_... Jaune countered a lightning-fast advance and downward slash from the heiress' rapier, locking blade against blade as the girl pushed down with what he could _swear_ was killing intent merely inches from his face.

"You _first_ lesson, Arc," she began with evident strain against the counter-force he was exerting, "Your aura - and therefore semblance - are working in conjunction with your weapon, which I'm now _positive_ has a secondary Dust-powered mecha-shifting function to deliver powerful Dust attacks in tandem with every strike. _Use it!_"

_SHING-SHING! CLASH CLANG CLASH! CRASSSH!_

Quickly blocking and countering another swift series of slashes and lunges, Jaune was barely able to riposte a particularly powerful up-swipe of the rapier that sent shards of ice dust flying into the desks and ceiling of the classroom along the arc of its attack.

"I don't know how to do that! A-Are you _crazy!?_"

Having seemingly snapped back into more of the Weiss he previously knew, Jaune balked as the heiress barked back, "The enemy will _not_ pause for you to ask questions _nor_ grant you reprieve just so you can consult with your arsenal for available abilities! _Act_, and let instinct do the rest!"

Stepping back as he saw a sizable light blue glyph surrounding the tip of her weapon, Jaune watched her charge what was surely a fatal ice attack before glancing at his sword and shutting his eyes tightly.

He had been fighting droves of Grimm alongside Blake all week, not to mention the odds he'd faced at the pavilion, so running was no longer his desire - nor an option. As he focused on the sound of Weiss' charge reaching its critical point, he took a deep breath and let instinct take over - just like he had done at Mountain Glenn.

"_Vermiculus Vulnus!_"

_SHINNNG-SHOOOM!_

And with impressive speed, the knight countered the subsequent ice blast with an upward slash of a now red-runed Crocea Mors, neutralizing the frigid attack in midair in a plume of hissing steam as the two opposing forces met.

Watching as the red glow along the entire blade stayed strong throughout the counter-strike, Weiss smirked as she confirmed that her theory was indeed correct and smoothly approached the dumbfounded blonde with a self-satisfied expression.

"Out_standing_," she began informatively, regarding the detailed inscriptions along the length of Crocea Mors with Jaune, "The fire runes are even more tightly wound than on Myrtenaster, a rapier forged with _generations_' worth of secret Schnee family methods..."

"So you tried to turn me into a living popsicle just so you could check if my sword works like it's supposed to?" he asked flatly.

"Just for the record, this is me _trying_ to be nicer to you," the heiress remarked shortly, unable to hold back a mischievous smirk as she continued, "So I did hold back a _little_."

"Great! Then I take it we're done here."

Weiss scoffed, but more out of disbelief than of derision as she stepped back with rapier in hand, wearing her icily professional expression once more, "We most certainly are _not!_ Your counter, though potent, was a _terrible_ waste of energy! You'll need more than brute force to defeat craftier opponents!"

Jaune sighed in reply, resigning himself to the lesson being forced upon him, "And I'm guessing you're going to enlighten me whether I like it or not..."

"Correct. Instinct told you that ice was the best way to counter fire. Though that may be the case in nature, quite the opposite is true with _Dust_. For maximum efficiency, a Dust attack is best countered by a riposte using the _same_ element."

The knight furrowed his brows as he processed the information, "So... fight fire with fire?"

"Precisely," the snowy-haired girl concurred with a small smile, readying her blade one more, "Shall we continue?"

Knowing full well that the question was anything but, Jaune casually nodded with a small sigh, dropping into combat stance, "Meh, sur-"

_SSHHHH-KOW!_

"Wah!"

Barely evading the tendril of electricity from the tip of Weiss' rapier that quite literally blew up the desk behind him, Jaune's expression settled into a grimace of concentration as he prepared to face the following attacks head on.

_sss-KOW!-tzzt KOW!-tzzt KRAKAKOW!-tzzzzz..._

Weiss' eyes widened when she realized Jaune was no longer evading her yellow-glyph electric attacks but _countering_ them instead, defensively positioning his red-runed blade just at the right spot with every electric attack to absorb the bolt into the fiery red glow of Crocea Mors. Moreover, he had already begun to glow white with aura, doubtlessly endowing him with literal lightning-like reflexes to counter several more of her attacks before she finally launched a steady fork of lightning to see if he'd hold.

And hold he did.

Grunting under the sheer power coming from Myrtenaster's attack, Jaune held his blade firm against the relentless energy until Weiss' yellow dust ran out, to which he took a deep breath and readied his counter-attack as the red runes on his blade now turned yellow as well.

"_Fulgur Sectis!_"

_ZzzZZZzzRAK-POW!_

Despite her disbelief at the rapid speed of the blade's change in elemental properties, Weiss conjured the quickest defense she could muster without Yellow Dust - an ice shield that quickly caved and exploded under the subsequent energy blast, throwing her back several feet to the teacher's drawing board behind the desk.

"Weiss!" Jaune shouted in concern from his position, putting aside his growing excitement with the newly-discovered features of his weapon as he ran over to her smoking form on the floor, "Are you-"

His words were cut short when Weiss quickly held out a hand for him to be quiet, his concern for her wellbeing turning into concern for _his_ wellbeing as she slowly stood, propping herself on Port's desk to stand straight, all while bearing a mightily expectant grin.

"Now _that's_ more like it," she declared, Jaune's body immediately tensing as he watched her suddenly sheathe Myrtenaster and take off her jacket before throwing it across the teacher's desk, "Armor off. _Now_."

"B-But-"

"_Do it_..." she countered menacingly, to which he quickly removed his chest plate and pauldrons and threw them at the foot of the same desk.

"W-W-What are you doing?" he could only ask, a light crack in his voice as she quickly closed the space between them at a brisk pace. But instead of stopping, she merely pushed right by him with a pensive smirk to put several feet of space between them before she turned and unsheathed her deadly rapier.

She now stood, her deceptively frail pale shoulders bare with the mere lacy straps that kept her top in place as she now spoke up with a challenging smile at the knight, "Proposing a _duel_. Not just some meager spar - official fencing rules of the Schnee Estate - first blood drawn from the torso wins!"

"Are you serious!" Jaume cried out incredulously, already considering the girl's present punishment plenty.

"I wouldn't _challenge_ you if I didn't think you could possibly beat me, Arc!" she exclaimed with repressed excitement, "And to be honest, this may be the most fun I've had in _ages_ \- so don't spoil it for me now by holding back!"

Momentarily stunned in shock at the words that had just escaped the heiress' lips, Jaune slowly turned to glance at his sword and collapsed shield that hung at his sides before turning up to face her with a growing smirk.

It was honestly surreal. Through the days of intensive hunting with the ravenette, Jaune knew he had accelerated the development of his skills as a swordsman thanks to her party system... but to have it already reached such a level with the aid of his unlocked semblance to be deemed worthy to duel a _Schnee?_ Call it a mix of his resilience as a person and his equally indomitable aural will, but if Jaune had been so willing to face hordes of Grimm to further unlock his potential... what was gonna stop him from facing Weiss now?

"Challenge accepted!" he replied resolutely with shield now in hand and weapons readied, to which the heiress locked her rapier in light blue and announced the beginning of the duel with relish.

"_Allez!_"

"_Frigidum Scutum!_"

In the second it took for Weiss to summon a hail of dagger-like ice shards from her glyph, Jaune put up a large ice shield much like the heiress had done from his now blue-runed blade which was quickly battered by the subsequent hail fall.

_Ka-Ka-Ka-CRASH!_

Crumbling from the sheer number of icy impacts, Jaune fell back as a few more shards hit his upheld shield before being beset by the heiress herself in a flurry of rapier-strikes and slashes. With no hope of being able to match the rapier-wielder's skill blade to blade, Jaune defensively used his sword and shield in tandem to the best of his ability against her repertoire of lunges and feints before thinking up an alternative offense.

Noting his shield itself beginning to sprout red runes, Weiss paused her attack to lock her weapon into the red using the last of her Red dust to defend against his next attack.

"_Mico Crepitus!_"

The moment Myrtenaster made contact with the shield, the runes ignited in a flash of flame sending Weiss and Jaune flying in opposite directions in the resulting heat wave that threatened to spontaneously combust anything made from wood that was too close to the source. Weiss and Jaune each sat up at the same time, Jaune situated near the student desks while the heiress had fallen at the foot of Port's desk once more.

Jaune made an attempt to stand, but his hand slipped as it was propped on his red-runed shield that now gave way and skidded across the ground as Jaune fell back... but not before accidentally firing a lone ice dust dagger from the tip of his still blue-runed blade into the mahogany wood right by Weiss' head.

His head quickly shot back up to face the wide-eyed girl who stared at the icy projectile in shock, "Umm... accident?"

But turning to face him with an icy scowl, the snowy-haired heiress stood up with a grunt, "Hmph. I'll ensure those two words are engraved as the epitaph on your gravestone."

"..._meep_..."

Jaune gulped as he saw her ready her blade, dozens of dark blue glyphs surrounding him in a large dome as the heiress began glowing blue herself. Steeling himself to defend, he let his instincts speed up his reflexes considerably as he began to glow white with aura, his sword's runes turning yellow once more just as the girl dashed through the air to the first of the blue glyphs.

"_Ensis Infinitas!_"

_shingshingshingshingshingshingshingshing_...

Weiss dashed from glyph to glyph through the air, each gravity glyph acting as its own trampoline to launch her rapier-tip first at the knight who impressively enough managed to deflect most of her attacks with rapid twirls and parries from Crocea Mors before her dark blue glyphs were finally exhausted. _Most_ of her attacks...

"At least you're not untouchable," she sighed in frustration as she realized that the small multitude of nicks and cuts that Jaune's aura quickly healed were only on his arms and legs, "But it seems rather unfortunate that it's come to this..."

"Come to what?" Jaune asked quizzically before he noticed her entire sword beginning to glow white.

The white runes on Myrtenaster reminded him of the runes he'd seen on Crocea Mors in Mountain Glenn, and he immediately knew that she was readying a final strike which even _he'd_ surely be unable to withstand without injury. Quickly dashing towards his shield across the floor as the heiress began glowing white as well, he made a last-ditch effort to counter as the runes on Crocea Mors now turned a jade green with Weiss' execution of her attack.

"_Novacula Ventus!_"

The entire room lighting up in white as several concentrated beams of pure Dust shot out of Myrtenaster to converge on the knight, Jaune managed a single motion with his blade before bracing himself behind his shield for impact.

_BABOOOOOM!_

The next thing Jaune knew, he opened his eyes to find his back against the cold wall all the way at the far end of the classroom, his jaw slackening at the trail of destruction he'd left when Weiss' attack had sent him flying through every row of desks to his current position. Quickly glancing down at his shield by his side, glowing white with the absorption of energy before finally dimming down into its normal form, he noticed his own aura's glow dimming down with its protective purpose fulfilled before noting the equally slack-jawed heiress staring at him from all the way down by Port's desk.

"How... are you even still _conscious_," she finally huffed, the excellent acoustics in the room projecting her voice all the way to Jaune who slowly stood behind the last row of desks, "Do you have any _idea_ the kinds of monsters I've completely _obliterated_ with that attack!?"

He casually shrugged, brushing himself off before bending down to pick up the shield and collapsing it to hook it to his side as a sheath, "One thing's for sure - I can definitely say I don't have any fight left in me after something like _that_. That attack really packed a punch!"

Weiss sighed once more in frustration, covered in a light sheen of sweat after Jaune's heat attack and now without her tiara after her final attack as her hair now fell freely against her glossy back and shoulders, checking her rapier to see that it was now empty.

"Well, that was the last of my Dust, too," she confessed before sheathing her weapon and beginning to turn towards Port's desk to grab her jacket, "I suppose we can call it a stalemat-_ah_."

Wincing at a strange papercut-like pain at her side, Weiss paused mid-motion as her hand instinctively went down to her waist at the location of the discomfort.

"You okay?" the knight now asked as he approached her, his eyes suddenly widening along with hers when she brought her hand back up to see that it was lightly stained in blood.

"H-How?" she mumbled as she checked her side right on time to see her aura finishing healing a small cut that had gone through her top, "You were several feet away from me..."

Jaune glanced at his sword as the green runes finally faded, leaving it in its normal form before he sheathed it and supplied the girl with her answer, "Jade Dust... I think I managed to nick you with an air slice just before you landed your attack on me."

The two students traded an uncertain glance for a moment before Weiss finally shook her head with a light chuckle and muttered more to herself than anything, "How 'bout that..."

"Wait. Does that mean I...?" Jaune began in realization, quirking a brow in disbelief.

"_Yes_, Jaune. It does," she hedged in reluctant defeat with a small smile as she wiped away a bang that had fallen in front of her face and remained anchored there with the cooling perspiration on her forehead, "Though I'd normally threaten you not to breathe a word of this to anyone under penalty of a swift death, I'm afraid I may no longer be able to follow through with such an enforcement in your case."

The knight chuckled in reply, "No need. You have my word."

She nodded slowly, breaking eye contact with the knight as she weighed her options with a slight pout before idly shrugging and turning to pick up her jacket.

"Very well," she began after picking up her belongings and turning back to the knight, "I suppose that'll just have to do... you of all people know that we have a _reputation_ to protect due to our family names."

"Heh, no wonder you and Neptune get along so well..."

"Hmph!" she protested, narrowing her eyes playfully at the sarcastic blonde, "Don't be a pest!"

He held his hands up placatingly with a smile of mock-innocence, the heiress unable to hold back a short chuckle at his antics before glancing at the books on the desk, "Feel free to take those for yourself, maybe there's something you may find of use in another book... but first..."

Weiss then surprised Jaune as she straightened out and offered him her hand rigidly, her face adopting a stoic regal expression as she announced, "A gesture for a new start between a changed girl and _clearly_ a changing boy."

Raising a brow with slight amusement at her sudden serious action, he countered, "Is the handshake really necessary?"

"_Yes_," she replied with a deadpan.

"You sure like your symbolism and stuff..."

"_Obviously_," she quipped as he took her hand in their firm handshake, "My semblance involves the creation of _glyphs_, for crying out loud!"

"True true. Then I wonder what it means that I have to talk all the time before changing my semblance's attack forms..."

Weiss shook her head amusedly as the two let go of their new gesture of friendship, "Seriously Jaune, you really _are_ a dunce... But since I'm currently doing my utmost to apply Neptune's advice of seeing others in a positive light, then I guess I'll just say you're a _dunce_... but in a good way."

"Fair enough," Jaune replied, turning with a smile to the stack of books on the desk and going over them one by one. The chants and incantation book, four books going over the basic handling of the main four types of Dust - Fire, Ice, Lightning and Wind - and a book about combination attacks between Huntsmen. Eyeing them more closely, an idea came to mind and he turned to the heiress inquisitively who had just broken the icy lock on the classroom door with a flick of her rapier, "Hey Weiss... you got any more of these?"

"Of course," she replied calmly as she set herself to redoing her side ponytail and setting it in place with her tiara, "The Schnee Online Bookstore is one of the largest Dust and Aura oriented libraries in all of Remnant."

Jaune hummed in thought, the ravenette's ability going through his mind as the two had realized during the previous week that the library held no more skill books for her to use, "Good, cuz I think once I'm done with them, Blake could probably integrate them into her aura too."

"Ah yes, her new semblance," Weiss recalled pensively, "But I must warn you, they're terribly expensive..."

"_Heh_... I don't think funds will be a problem in Blake's case..."

Dozens of mobs and boss drops were to thank for _that_.

"Welllll," she now continued, looking up in thought as she put on her jacket, "I _suppose_ I can give her my login credentials so she receives a substantial discount from her purchases... after all, I do owe her the most for having put up with me all these months - it's the least I could do."

"Alright, done deal! ...So, what do we do about the classroom we just wrecked?"

"Leave it. Ignore it. Pretend nothing ever happened."

At that, the knight couldn't help a fully-blown grin at the heiress' words. It sure did seem that Neptune's personality was already rubbing off on her. And with that, he finally understood the subtle irony as to why the two had been able to click so easily... the irony that the only remedy to her previously frigid personality turned out to be the coolest person he knew. And as she opened the door for him to go through, he nodded in gratitude and left the room chuckling at how much the Havenite's mellow personality had benefitted that girl in a way that he knew he never could.

As a matter of fact, he couldn't help realizing that after the dance, he had completely set his once arduous infatuation with her to the side so the blue-haired student could have a shot... and he no longer had any qualms about it whatsoever.

"Hmm, I guess it really did turn out for the best in the end," he mumbled to himself contentedly after the two had parted ways, "I guess my turn will come with time... Like Mom always says, 'One good turn deserves another'!"

He paused in his stroll, for some strange reason feeling a chill in his spine as if there had just been a tremor in the universe before shaking off the feeling.

"Ah well," the knight concluded, thoughts of the amber-eyed catgirl now running through his mind inexplicably, "I just hope Blake's okay..."

* * *

She wasn't.

In all honesty, she hadn't been since the moment that she and Jaune had parted ways. She had already gathered that her Observe skill had improved, giving her more information on a target than previously possible... but she hadn't needed to try observing other objects to know that - if anything, the one she needed to analyze was _Jaune_, maybe now she'd finally have a way to figure out what was wrong with him!

But as she strolled through the outer edges of campus which usually at this point of day would be filled with students taking advantage of the weekend to relax, Blake's cat ears flattened underneath her bow as the reality of her true motivations sunk in like the literal sensation of solitude around her.

She had run away. Again.

'Old habits die hard, I guess,' she sighed in thought, a small frown on her features as she resolved herself in her decision, 'I _must _make it up to him somehow...'

The thought of simply going to the cafeteria and joining him for lunch had crossed her mind several times already, but she feared that returning so soon may look too suspicious - or at the very least, knowing Jaune, that she had decided to return only out of pity. And after hours spent talking about how they felt in their teams, she knew that he still felt prone to thinking that even Pyrrha only helped him sometimes out of pity, something the catgirl could clearly tell wasn't the case.

And she didn't want their friendship to rest on a foundation of misunderstanding... no, it mattered too much for her to be careless about it.

Wait... what?

She paused, stopping in her tracks at the unexpected addition at the end of her train of thought. Was it true? Her brows furrowed as she concentrated on the concept.

It didn't take long to realize that she had gotten used to Jaune's company, sure. But the more she thought about it, the more peculiar she realized such a thing was. For starters, she had fallen way behind on her reading schedule that she practically followed religiously due to the fact that her books only made appearances by her side during the afternoons when she was alone in her dorm or wandering about with her team. Her mornings had now begun to be spent solely leveling up and hanging out with Jaune.

Then she realized how much her priorities had begun to change since the breach in general. Of course, Roman was behind bars and the White Fang had remained quiet without reports of a single robbery in the area, providing peace that enabled the usually wound up catgirl to finally loosen up a bit... but there was no denying that the many new things she had begun to try - from berry-covered waffles to the previously unthinkable act of actually picking up a video game controller - had been influenced by the affable blonde knight. So, Jaune again.

The final nail in the coffin came when a crisp breeze caused a chill to course through her body, Blake crossing her arms in front of herself to block out the cold and suddenly realizing that being alone didn't bring as soothing a sensation as it once had. Not unless she was hanging out with Jaune. That was something she had never expected... of course, she had never expected to get along so well with the knight in the first place.

'But why? Why would I be feeling this way at all?'

Just when the solution to this puzzle seemed at the cusp of reaching light, one tiny little detail galvanized the ravenette's entire body in alarm.

"_Wait._ Where _is_ everybody?"

Looking around the wide courtyard at the front of Beacon which was usually one of the busiest places on campus at this time of day and week, she audibly chastised herself upon realizing that there was indeed not a soul in sight. How could she have been so self-absorbed not to realize that there wasn't a single person around? Not to mention the eerie silence that permeated the air itself... the _unnatural _silence...

"_Inventory._"

**[Inventory]**

**_Equipment_**

**|...| O |...|  
****|Blazer | /X\ |Blouse|  
****| Dress Shoes | /\ |Uniform Skirt|****  
**

**_Weapons_**

**|Gambol's Sheath| |Gambol's Blade|**

**|Schnee Dust Ammo Clips _x12_| |Standard Ammo Clips_ x60_|**

**_Items_**

**|Recovery Potion _x45_| |Unknown Item _x1_|**

**|Green Dust Crystal _x39_| |Fifty Shades of Grey_ x1_|**

Pulling out both halves of her weapon and a few clips of ammo to be safe, forgoing the checking of the Unknown Item that she had been meaning to do all week but hadn't yet gotten the chance, Blake held Gambol Shroud at the ready as she began to check her surroundings.

"What on Remnant could be causin-"

But before she could finish the thought, a beam of light caught her eye, a reflection from something that caused her to turn up and falter at the sight of a foreign pale green orb of light over one of the far-side courtyard columns in the distance. Despite her best efforts, her attempts to discern the identity of the form within the orb were fruitless as she realized that the orb itself was comprised of something - no,_ several _somethings - that were rotating quickly around the form that she could only guess was the user.

"This is getting a bit too strange for my taste," Blake mumbled lowly before focusing on the unidentified user, "_Observe._"

**_BEEP!_**

**[Target out of range.]**

'Of _course_,' she now hedged at herself mentally with a facepalm before happening to glance up.

Catching sight of a second figure on another pillar facing away from her and towards the strange orb of what she quickly deduced must've been made of significant amounts of a pale green aura, Blake studied the much closer figure.

A man in a black suit... and if the silver hair weren't a dead giveaway, the cane he now produced certainly _was_. But with his back to her and at least thirty feet in the air, there was only one way for the ever-analytical catgirl to know for sure.

And willing herself to see the most common effect of her semblance, her question was promptly answered when her target's info finally appeared over his head.

**|The Headmaster|  
****LV? Ozpin**

* * *

**A/N:** _Knightshade. That's right, folks... preach it to the four winds along with me - **Knightshade!**  
_

_Now, don't get me wrong, I always did like Lunar Eclipse and Dark Knight, but the more I read amazing fiction that paired the two, the more I realized that the pairing needed a more fitting name. I dunno, something that caught the **essence** of both characters more fully, something that could make even the JaunexBlake haters **smile**, something more... **sexy!** So now that I came up with the name, **I'm gonna stick with it! **Of course, I won't ask anyone to change their usage of the pairing name, but if you liked this chapter as much as I liked writing it... then I hope you consider it ;)_

_Also, **references**. I try and tone it down sometimes, I really do. But I can't help it - fanfiction **by definition** is a tribute to a fandom one likes, so it only seems fitting that little tributes are made to the other fandoms and works of fanfiction I'm in love with out there too :D I know it's lame, but references are like British humor - you either get it or you don't! I just hope you guys like it :)_

_That being said, don't forget to **Fave, Follow and Review** to show your continued support!  
_

_I was gonna try to post this chapter the day this fic turned one month of age - you know, for symbolism and stuff - but yeah, that didn't happen. My timing sucks like that. But in just one month there were about **200 reviews, 400 likes, 18.5k views and 465 followers**... honestly, I'm still surprised people are even reading this, but know that I **deeply** appreciate all the support you've given!_

_So on a final note: as you can surely tell, **The Gamer Girl** won in the poll. By a landslide. As in, by more than the other three options combined. **Three times over.** So, if you're wondering about my little thank you note, now you know why ;) Anyway, I'll be working on this story for the next two weeks, which means one to two more chapters before I move on to **Chronicle**! So until next time, take care..._

_**And Happy Reading!**_


	9. Two and Two Together

**_Two and Two Together_**

* * *

"Now now, Miss Polendina... No need to act rashly."

Blake winced at the first words spoken by the Headmaster who remained standing on a column within the large Beacon courtyard, which strangely enough _still_ showed no signs of life other than the two figures poised in a standoff on opposite sides of the innermost ring of columns and the ravenette herself. Yes, the voice was none other than Ozpin's, but the catgirl couldn't help her initial reaction - never had his calm and collected way of speaking sounded so... _ominous_.

It was currently one of many reasons why she was thanking Oum above for having entered the area behind the silver-haired Professor and for somehow having managed to avoid detection under the shadow of one of the entryway arches opening up to the courtyard itself. Of course, she had her continually leveled _Stealth_ skill to thank for that as well... now if only she could sneak closer to gather intel on that 'Polendina' character...

"You are well aware as to the circumstances of my visit," a voice with impeccable pronunciation now began from within the glowing orb for the first time, "the Valean Council will not stand for it!"

'That voice,' Blake suddenly thought to herself with some surprise, 'It's... _familiar_...'

"Hoh?" the Headmaster replied with an audible sigh that almost hinted at amusement as he leaned a fraction further on his cane, certainly a sound Ozpin would make without his coffee cup to hide behind despite its complete unfamiliarity to the bemused ravenette, "But you and I are both aware that it is not the _Council_ who've sent you..."

"Of course not," the evidently feminine voice from the orb quickly countered but halted with the first sign of faltering in its pseudo-confident front, Blake's brows furrowing and lips pursing to the side as she scrutinized her memory to pin down its familiarity, "But... they were the ones who authorized the newly-appointed Head of Security to assign me to investigate the campus once Councilman Sun-Il failed to report for his weekly update!"

"Hmm, strange to think that the good General would opt for a more subtle approach in having you infiltrate the campus grounds," Ozpin thought aloud to himself with an idle hand to chin before shaking his head dismissively, "No matter; clearly, his plan has failed..."

"A contingency both he and my Father were well aware of when they chose to send me. Therefore, Headmaster Ozpin, I shall offer you due warning-"

And finally, Blake managed to place a name to the voice just before the orb stopped spinning - the moving membrane of greenish glow and flashing metal immediately separating into eight lustrous swords pointed right at the serene Professor.

"-I _am_ combat ready!"

"P-_Penny!?_" Blake couldn't help blurting out silently before placing both hands on her mouth, her gaze twitching up from the green-eyed redhead to the man above the nearest courtyard column lest the Headmaster heard her from above.

"Of which I have no doubt," Ozpin continued calmly, neither his voice nor body showing any alteration in the face of her immediate threat, "As a matter of fact, it was for that reason I had hoped you'd come _specifically_, Miss Polendina - think of this as a test for what's to come."

And for the first time, Blake saw Penny's face break its steely expression to contort into one of genuine confusion before it reverted as she barked back, "Wha? What do you-!"

"That is all the talking we need," Ozpin finished abruptly before seemingly lifting the tip of his cane up just a few inches from the top of the column by what the keen-sighted catgirl could tell, "Let us communicate not with words..."

_TWOK!_

Blake visibly flinched at the unnaturally loud sound Ozpin's cane made as he forcefully brought it back down to the pillar, causing a plume of dark energy to surge out from the Professor's feet in a ring of mist before quickly gathering in front of him upwards into a sizable black glyph larger than she had ever seen.

"...but with _actions_."

**_PING!_**

**[You've detected an ominous presence.]**

**_PING!_**

**[_Sense Danger_'s level has risen by 1.]**

'Uh oh,' Blake thought to herself as she looked from the red window in front of herself to the now completed glyph above, her _Sense Danger_ skill which had been unlocked with her usage of aura gaining intensity as a tool that warned her not only of danger to herself, but to anyone in the immediate vicinity even if the catgirl herself wasn't a target.

It didn't take long to see why the presence had caused her skill to level up in mere seconds.

**_KAOOOOOOOO!_**

One, two... no, _three_ howls escaped from within the black glyph before their owners broke through the strange portal in the air. Three massive heads of what looked like Beowolves whose jaws were easily big enough to bite Blake in half, each connected to _one_ body as the rest of the creature emerged at full charge at the scowling Penny.

"A Cerberus," Blake heaved out as silently as she could at the supposedly mythological creature, her shoulders slackening as her face went pale from her small safe zone outside the courtyard, "...A _Grimm_ Cerberus."

Indeed, the beast was a sight to behold - no armor along its obsidian body easily twice as tall as Blake herself, covered in a sheen layer of black fur that barely reflected any light other than on the three snarling heads that were covered with the distinctive Grimm facemasks... except... the eyes weren't red. They were a brilliant _amber_, predatory in their piercing intensity as the beast pounced on Penny who retracted her swords to form a pair of iron wings and fly out of the way in an aerial sidestep.

Completely obliterating the column where Penny stood, the beast prepared to charge again as Blake tentatively took a step out from under the arch where she had taken cover and focused on the Grimm, "_Observe_."

**Dark Cerberus Lv46  
****HP: 48700 MP: 2200**

'Wha- those stats are _insane!_' a wide-eyed Blake mentally exclaimed, now seriously considering warning the green-eyed girl of the imminent danger she was facing, 'But I can't see anything else about it, just like with... Impossible... could it really be that Ozpin can actually _summon_ that kind of creature!?'

Right now, it no longer mattered that her own level was still low. It didn't matter that she could be putting herself in danger by stepping out onto the main avenue and calling for a stop to this pointless fight. But before Blake could make her presence known to ward off the immense beast from its prey, her jaw dropped as Penny's subsequent multi-sword attack not only managed to halt the Cerberus' advance, but made it _fall back_ as well with a pained howl.

As she noticed the pink-bowed sword-wielder drifting closer, having been forced to move back a few columns with the completion of her own attack, the catgirl took her chance to quickly focus on Penny.

**|The Marionette|  
****LV37 Penny Polendina**

"Aaand... she's ridiculously strong as well," Blake drawled as each sword flew at the beast and dug in with electric tendrils, diverting the Cerberus' physical attacks before being pulled back with what evidently looked like string attached to the hilts of each blade, "Her _Kusarigama Skill_ must be off the charts..."

_FWOOOOOM!_

"Aaand, the giant three-headed dog breathes _fire_," she drawled once more as the frustrated beast launched its strongest attack and lit the entire courtyard up in eerie orange light, forcing Penny to back away with a blast of fire from one of its gruesome jaws.

Clearly now out of her element fighting fire with swords, the airborne brawl went back and forth for a few seconds more, Penny holding her own but visibly showing signs of strain as the cracks began to show in her defense. Multiple fire blasts slicing through the air around her as she weaved her way between them with her iron wings, the wings quickly folded up front to cover her as a blast finally connected with its target and sent the marionette careening back into another column which buckled and fell under the impact.

With a growing scowl at the passive Headmaster poised above the column several yards in front of her, Blake resolved herself to enter the battle and provide cover fire, about to charge up an Energy Bolt when her first step forward was halted at her ankle.

"What's- UWAH!"

Her entire world suddenly going upside-down as she unwittingly dropped Gambol Shroud, the ravenette was abruptly hoisted up by her ankle as she frantically tried to look around to see her elusive antagonist. However, finally catching sight of what held her caused her to squirm with a mix of fear and disgust.

It was certainly Grimm-like, but once again unlike any Grimm she'd ever seen. What at first looked like a large jet-black blob covered in a coat of clear slime evidently had grubby arms and short fat legs that propped it up off the ground. But that wasn't what made Blake shiver. That little sucker was also evidently more mouth than body, its dark gaping maw displaying two rows of sharp white fangs circling its entire wide-open jaws as it let out a seriously disturbing gurgling growl.

And she was currently being hoisted up dozens of feet in the air by its long barbed tongue.

**_THWAK THWAK THWAK!_**

"Gyah!"

And just like that, three more tongues whipped out from another trio of the creatures that hopped out from around the courtyard entrance to ensnare Blake's other limbs. Her panic rising as the tentacle-like appendages that held her legs began tightening their grip around the stretched fabric of her leggings and slithering their way down to her thighs, the catgirl's face began to redden - either from the rush of blood to her head due to gravity, or the encroachment of her _very_ personal space. Or both.

"_N-No!_ This _better_ not be 'that' kind of attack!"

Vigorously struggling against her four assailants and cursing the _Ninjas of Love_ series for currently causing her mind some surprisingly conflicting thoughts, Blake couldn't help but sigh in relief as she realized the tendrils of slimy muscle had merely gotten a better grip to hoist her higher in the air, placing her at the same level as...

Oh wait.

"Son of a-"

"Miss Polendina," Ozpin now unwittingly interrupted Blake's angered mumbling as he directed himself at the panting marionette, the tentacle-tongues holding her up just a little higher in the air behind him as if showing off their feline prey, "I do hope you're not considering escape? If you do, I'm afraid I will not be able to guarantee the safety of this young woman behind me..."

...WHAT.

Blake's already dizzy mind went reeling from the words said without hesitation. Had he even turned to see her? Didn't Ozpin know who she was? Would he really harm his own _student!?_ She could only rationalize what she knew, and that was that the Professor had already been onto her secrets for some time now... maybe, maybe he was counting her as an acceptable loss from the start...

**_DING!_**

'Oh no, there's no way this could get worse...'

**[Negative Status Effect(s) Active!]**

**Confusion (_lowest_)  
****Paralysis (_intermediate_)**

Blake looked at the barbed tongues that had torn through her black leggings and mentally facepalmed as she already felt the feeling disappearing from her thrashing legs, hoping her Gamer's Mind would at least negate the _Confusion_ effect for as long as possible due to its high psychological resistance.

"H-How could you bring a civilian into this!?" Penny yelled as she dodged another triple jaw-knashing attack, only getting a chance to turn to face the Professor and verify the validity of the ultimatum when the Cerberus seemingly held back in a temporary ceasefire. However, Blake could only watch as the redhead only spared her a glance before turning her full attention to Ozpin without having recognized her at all.

'Probably due to my different outfit - we've only met _once_, after all,' Blake quickly rationalized as her numbed legs slowed to a stop, now objectively weighing her options thanks to the full effect of _Gamer's Mind_ as the Headmaster replied.

"Please don't fret, Miss Polendina. If you fight with all your strength, no harm will come to this young woman... And don't misunderstand, she entered all by herself."

Even from a distance, Blake could tell Penny's fists were clenching at her sides, her wings still deployed like those of an iron angel full of righteous fury, "_Lies._"

"Now why would I lie?" Ozpin replied flatly before pausing for the briefest moment as if struck by an unexpected thought, and feeling the tongue-tacles push her forward just to the inside of the inner ring of columns, Blake heard the Professor continue with a slightly sterner tone, "But it is indeed strange. How could a civilian simply walk through the illusion barrier?"

And for the first time, Ozpin turned his gaze to Blake, her passive _Observe_ skill barely high enough to pick up the trace of furrowed brows on his forehead as he concluded, "Strange indeed, Miss Belladonna..."

However, he simply turned back to face Penny, any previous sign of apprehension dissipated as he leaned forward on his cane like he had been during the entire encounter, "Oh well. Come, Miss Polendina... you'll find yourself in mortal peril as well if you're below my expectations."

"Hmpf, the General told me of your Semblance, respected Headmaster," Penny now replied as she let herself float down to the ground with a wry smirk Blake had only seen on her before she had demolished the White Fang on the docks, "You place too much faith on your Abysmal Grimm."

"Hoh?"

And with Ozpin's nonchalant reaction, the eyes of the Dark Cerberus flashed a brighter amber as if reawakening to the challenge while the marionette continued, "Fortunately, a breakthrough was made last week in Atlas' scientific community... which my Father was gracious enough to extend to me in the form of _sensational_ upgrades!"

**_KAOOOOOOOOO!_**

Three howls now cut through the courtyard as the beast came back to life, setting itself back on its haunches before pouncing over the main avenue to converge on the green-eyed puppeteer - paws, jaws and all.

_FWOOOOOM!_

Her breath hitching as all three heads unleashed a simultaneous fire attack that engulfed the small fighter, Blake's eyes widened as a pale green flash emerged through the flames flying right at the Cerberus, Penny's subsequent left cross and right hook enough to daze two heads before a roundhouse kick to the third sent her back to the ground as the beast fell back in midair. Growling in rage, the Cerberus then repeated the attack by pouncing at Penny again.

Something she was completely prepared for.

Her eight swords merely embedding themselves into the floor around her, Penny went down to a crouch and unleashed a devastating uppercut as she flew through the air that landed right in the beast's chest, Blake now slack-jawed despite being upside down as she witnessed a move that she had only seen Yang execute as flawlessly.

Shoryuken.

The catgirl continued to watch as the dark beast reeled back, uncharacteristically squealing in pain like a mortally wounded Boarbatusk before its form finally gave way and its entire body fell apart in a heavy plume of black smoke. And with that, the black glyph over the courtyard disintegrated.

So, Ozpin's beasts _could_ be destroyed...

Already feeling the sluggish numbness advancing up - or down - her waist, Blake looked around to see what she could do to get herself out of the frog-like Grimms' grasp.

"Commendable," Ozpin stated at the scowling marionette, "But seeing that you've been so focused on the Cerberus, I don't think you've been formally introduced to the Cueyatls currently restraining our young visitor - slow but durable, not to mention _poisonous_, they're also rather ill-tempered... and you've just angered the mother."

"Wha-"

**_THWOK!_**

Grunting in pain, Penny lurched forward as the meaty end of a grotesquely large tongue struck her in the back, the suction and pull now threatening to drag her into the gigantic jaw of a much larger Cueyatl that had appeared behind her through an identical black glyph to the previous one - evidently a reformed glyph by Blake's best guess. But shooting her arms out as the giant beast behind her gurgled a preemptive victory growl, Penny's sword hilts all lit up one by one, her seemingly telekinetic hold to them being regained as the nearly invisible strings tightened in place and held against the monster's might.

It was easy to see the weapons wouldn't last long.

But merely using them to bide her time, Penny closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she held both hands together, nothing happening for a moment as the increasingly frustrated Cueyatl braced itself for a final tug. And just as the tug was executed that snapped the marionette's link to her weapons, Blake watched Penny open her eyes as a _very_ familiar shade of pale blue now enveloped the red-haired girl's form.

"_Aura Blaze Subroutine Double-O One!_"

**_GLOMP!_**

A moment of perfect silence befell the courtyard after the Mother Cueyatl simply swallowed Penny whole.

Slowly turning his gaze at the bewildered - and still upside-down - ravenette, Ozpin began with a raised brow, "Well, _that_ was anticlimactic..."

_rumblerumblerumblerumble_...

What at first sounded like a small earthquake took the Professor's attention from the catgirl towards the Mother Cueyatl, no motion being made by the monster... until Blake saw its jet-black slimy skin begin to bubble as if it were coming to a boil. And finally, like a frog placed in a microwave, an area of skin bulged out grotesquely into a rather unsightly large blue bubble just before the entire beast blew up in a blast of black smoke, revealing none other than Penny herself still standing with a residual blue glow on the main avenue in her same clasp-handed meditative pose. Blake knew it the moment it happened, upside-down or not.

That was the strongest Mana attack she had ever seen.

"Excellent. That is what I wanted to see," Ozpin began like any regular professor would in coolly commending a student, which only served to anger the ravenette as he continued with an airy whisk of his wrist towards the glyph, "Now, why don't we test your limits?"

Penny barely had time to react before the large glyph behind her disintegrated and quickly rolled along the ground like dense black fog before rising in the air and reforming over and behind the Headmaster. Blake watched, her mind still sharp but her body losing all feeling as the portal was completed and a metallic clicking sound was heard from within.

'I have to get out of this _now_, but I can't circumvent the status effect if I don't have at least a hand free to perform Vecchian Aura Recovery!' the suspended catgirl mentally berated herself for still being unable to find a way to wriggle free from the Cueyatls' debilitating grasp, the strain on her face suddenly relaxing as she was struck with an idea, 'Unless... if the Mother Cueyatl fell to Penny's Mana attack, then maybe these guys...'

**_KREEEEEEEE!_**

Blake scowled as she turned up to see a long black appendage appear out of the glyph portal, its pointed tip coming down and embedding itself into the main avenue running through the courtyard... and another... and another... and another...

**_KREEEEEAAA!_**

Four legs out, the body followed - tiny compared to the thin long legs that were nearly as tall as the courtyard columns, a flat bony-white carapace with eight glowing amber eyes focused on the marionette - before its back four legs appeared as well.

Mentally pulling out her swords from the ground around her, Penny observed what looked like a Grimm version of a giant daddy long legs spider before it lashed a leg at her with surprising speed that went countered by one of her swords. However, now propping itself onto only three legs, four more slashes were inflicted on the redhead in the blink of an eye along with a rapier-like stabbing thrust from the fifth leg from underneath the beast.

_chingchingchingchingCHING-CRACK!_

Penny growled as she saw one of her swords that she had countered with strewn about the courtyard in pieces after the creature's last attack... so not only were the Grimm's thin legs deceptively sharp at every angle, they were hardy, too.

With no time to lose, Blake now set herself to getting free from her restraints, flexing her hand to check for mobility before sparing a glance at the Cueyatls below that seemed to cheer on their dark companion with those nauseating gurgling croaks.

'Energy Bolt. It's a mana bullet you can shoot out from your hand that explodes upon contact... so most of its damage must come from the explosion,' she quickly rationalized, continually using _Gamer's Mind_ to remain calm as she felt the paralysis working its way past her navel, 'but I can't risk attracting Ozpin's attention with an explosive attack, and I don't have the mana to make more than one Spiraling Energy Bolt... I must find a simpler method of converting explosive damage into piercing damage... hmm, I think there's a way.'

_hssssssss_...

Willing the pale blue energy to coalesce onto her hand, the ravenette visualized Jaune's advice about gamer's intuition in action as she mentally commanded, '_Condense_. Condense along a single axis!'

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[A skill has been created through a special action.]**

**[Continuous manipulation of mana has created a skill with piercing power, _Mana Arrow_.]**

**_DING!_**

**[Mana Arrow (Active) LV1 - EXP: 0.00% / MP: 5]**

**An attack skill that hardens mana into an elongated shape. Only possible for those talented in manipulating mana.**

'Hm. I'm not finished _yet_,' she continued balefully at the windows in front of her before gazing at the long rod of mana in her palm, '_Spin_.'

_shuuuuuuuuu_...

And as the long form of mana began to spin faster and faster, picking up a small air current as it reached the peak of kinetic potential, Blake focused on the nearest Cueyatl that had its grip on her hand before mentally yelling the command and flicking her wrist, 'PIERCE!'

_**SQUEEE**-pshhhhh..._

The creature barely had time to squeal in pain before swelling and exploding in a puff of black mist.

**_PING!_**

**[A skill has been created through a special action.]**

**_PING!_**

**[Continuous manipulation of mana has created a skill with piercing power, _Spinning_ _Mana Arrow_.]**

**_DING!_**

**[Spinning Mana Arrow (Active) LV1 - EXP: 0.00% / MP: 6] **

**A long-distance attack skill with increased piercing power by adding a strong spin to a mana arrow. Only possible for those talented in manipulating mana.**

Blake couldn't help a wry smirk as she slowly shook her head at the windows, 'I'd bet Jaune would love to see _this _in action...'

_BOOM!_

And glancing over at the main battle in the courtyard a final time, Blake's eyes widened as she saw Penny literally slice through the Grimm - and most of the remaining intact columns - with her pale green beam attack that had cut through several bullheads at the docks last semester... all before collapsing on the floor.

Without a moment to lose, Blake quickly materialized another spinning mana arrow in her free hand to dispatch the second Cueyatl and repated the action for the third. The fourth one, the one that had surprised her at first by hoisting her into the air with its barbed tongue, now seemed fairly angry and about to do something to the catgirl... but if it was, it never got the chance since it met its inevitable fate, leaving the ravenette to brace herself as she fell several dozen feet and landed on the main avenue head first with a dull crack.

**...**

Some indeterminate amount of time later, Blake's eyes finally fluttered open to see the blue skies over Beacon Academy.

Looking around, still sprawled on her back due to the lingering numbness in her body, she realized that the previous battle had indeed occurred as she noticed the courtyard was still empty - and mostly destroyed - so with a grunt, she dragged her hand down her face with the unexpectedly groggy command.

"Thathus Windoh."

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv22**

**...**

**HP: 947/1150  
****MP: 826/850**

**...**

**STR: - 20 **_**+9 +**_

**VIT: - 32 _+14.4 +_**

**DEX: - 21 _+9.45 +_**

**INT: - 22 +**

**WIS: - 7 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 42  
****Money: 6,500,300 Lien**

* * *

'Really... what's with my _voice_.'

"Oh! _Sal-u-tations_, are... you alright?"

The voice from outside her field of vision startled Blake, now turning her head up and back to see Penny standing over her just a little worse for wear.

"Umm... Mm-hm," was all the catgirl was willing to intone while she figured out why her mouth wasn't working properly, to which the marionette merely raised a brow.

"Would you not... like to stand?"

Deadpanning at the now evident role-reversal from the the circumstances surrounding their first encounter, Blake threw caution to the wind and hedged loudly as she tried propping herself up into a seated position, "Uf _curth_ aye wud lack tah thand!"

Her breath hitching with rising panic, the catgirl managed to keep her torso upright as she quickly reached up to her mouth to check for swelling on her cheeks or jaw, _anything_ that could explain her embarrassingly muddled words!

However, Penny simply looked the agitated catgirl from head to toe, unsettling the ravenette even more as she seemed to be looking _into_ her before delivering her harrowing diagnosis, "Strange. Mild bodily paralysis inflicted by unknown means and signs of affected speech... Oh dear, I believe you may be suffering the symptoms of Numb Tongue!"

"_NUMTUNG?_" Blake cried out as the freckled redhead began pacing the avenue in front of them with worry.

"Oh dear oh dear, what if there isn't a doctor who can help in time, the nearest trauma center equipped with Atlesian vaccination equipment is leagues away - what if the culprit is indeed the Melvaran Mud Flea-!?"

But stopping short in mid-step as she noticed Blake's potent stare and hand outstretched to stop her before she started emotionally spiraling, the catgirl nodded curtly as soon as she was satisfied with the silence and stopped glowering at the marionette to turn to an invisible space in front of herself.

"Inwintowee."

Blinking at the clearly miffed ravenette as nothing seemed to happen, Penny watched her facepalm and try again.

"_Inwentorie_."

"..."

Blake shut her eyes and huffed loudly, blowing a few locks of hair out of her face before giving it one more shot.

"_IN-VIN-TOE-WII._"

**[Inventory]**

**_Equipment_**

**|...| O |...|  
****|Blazer | /X\ |Blouse|  
****| Dress Shoes | /\ |Uniform Skirt|****  
**

**_Weapons_**

**|...| |...|**

**|Schnee Dust Ammo Clips _x12_| |Standard Ammo Clips_ x60_|**

**_Items_**

**|Recovery Potion _x45_| |Unknown Item _x1_|**

**|Green Dust Crystal _x39_| |Fifty Shades of Grey_ x1_|**

'_Better_,' Blake growled internally before reaching into the window suspended in front of her, an action that greatly surprised the young girl standing above her as three green dust crystals came out in a flash of light.

Glaring at Penny to ensure the girl held herself back from asking the question she could _clearly_ see she was itching to ask, Blake fumbled with the first thumb-sized crystal and jammed it on her opposite arm with the command, "_Vekkian Weecuhvewie!_"

_SHOOM!_

**_PING PING!_**

**[100 HP recovered.]**

**[24 MP recovered.]**

The crystal gone, she now positioned another, "_Vekkian Recoverwee!_"

_SHOOM!_

**_PING!_**

**[100 HP recovered.]**

"_Vecchian Recovery!_"

_SHOOM!_

**_PING PING!_**

**[3 HP recovered.]**

**[HP filled.]**

**_PING!_**

**[Negative Status Effect(s) Removed!]**

"Mhm. _Much_ better," Blake finally mumbled to herself with a satisfied nod before picking up the nearby Gambol Shroud to sling it across her back and finally standing in front of a fairly dumbfounded Penny, who at this point knew little else to do with herself other than raise her hand for permission to speak, "Umm... yes?"

"That... was... _stu-pendous!_" she finally exclaimed with hands balled up in excited fists, getting a little too close for comfort as she began to examine the surprised ravenette once more, "A healing technique based on _mana_, incredible! You _must_ tell me, is that function a part of your Semblance or something bestowed upon yourself by your Faunus heritage!?"

"Look, how about you tell me a little more about what just happened and I'll... wait. _What_," the catgirl cut herself off as she stared wide-eyed at the marionette after stepping back to process her last statement, to which the freckled girl merely stood in place with hands on her hips and a brow raised matter-of-factly.

"I referred to your Faunus heritage," Penny began flatly despite Blake's clearly bewildered expression, "It is quite obvious really, your-"

"Just... _whatever_," Blake quickly interrupted with shut eyes, shaking off Penny's astute observation as likely another one of her quirky abilities once she recalled Ruby having revealed the redhead's previous accurate deduction about it the semester before, "Tell me what just happened and I'll tell you how I became... like this."

"Um... very well," Penny mumbled, dropping the raised finger in protest that she realized she was already about to make, "Hmm, despite my syste- uh, _gut, feelings_\- registering that a battle of some sort just took place, I do not detect any foes in the area - it simply seems I entered this illusion barrier and found you nearly unconscious."

What?

Blake was now the one looking Penny up and down in question... How could she have forgotten about everything that happened? But as the marionette turned around to glance at the mostly demolished courtyard, Blake saw the large marks the Mother Cueyatl's barbed tongue had left on her back as well.

'It must've had a much stronger _Confusion_ effect on her,' the catgirl realized after recalling the status effects the Cueyatl poison had inflicted on her, 'Though that means she must've had some sort of buff or defense mechanism in place that warded off the _Paralysis_ effect on her much like Gamer's Mind negated the _Confusion_ effect on _me_... hmm...'

"Um, alright," Blake conceded, figuring that maybe it was for the better. After all, she didn't see Ozpin around either... his summoned beasts' levels were clearly higher than Penny's, not to mention her own - didn't that mean that he could be an even _higher_ level person still? So why did he leave? Obviously, there had to be more going on.

One thing she was sure of, however, was that the Headmaster clearly wasn't counting on her entry into that little conversation - Blake could tell he had simply called an audible to an otherwise compromising situation. So until she could find a way to approach him at a time and place where the playing field between them would be evened out, she could at least settle with picking this girl's mind.

"Then let's just start with that... What's an illusion barrier?"

"Um, I suppose I could explain," Penny mumbled softly in reply, twiddling her fingers much like Ruby had a habit of doing with poking her index fingers together as if debating whether to continue or not, "Though I must admit that I have never actually had to explain the concept before - I have only known of it myself for the better part of a week..."

"It's alright, anything would be extremely beneficial at this point," Blake encouraged with as warm a voice she could muster, something that seemed to help the girl gather herself and nod indicatively in committing to the attempt.

"Right! Then, the most straight-forward definition of an illusion barrier is... an artificial space where one can use mana-related abilities without limitation nor restriction, though they can sometimes be created by those whose Aura is particularly attuned to the Greater Aura of Remnant itself."

The catgirl raised a quizzical brow as she echoed, "Without limitation?"

"Correct. Because nothing you do on this side affects the real world - naturally making it a preferred function of those with that particular type of ability."

"But why?" Blake asked, still puzzled as to the overall need as the incredible abilities of a certain blue-eyed blond crossed her mind, "I mean, there are Huntsmen who can perform some rather incredible feats of Aura... what would make it necessary to hide an ability from public knowledge? What would make this kind of spatial anomaly even _possible?_"

"Well... um..." there was that mumbling hesitation again, "that is because the entity creating them is Remnant itself. Aaand if mana users were to use certain abilities outside an illusion barrier with enough impact to affect a large enough population, Remnant would try and... well... _eliminate_ that person. It is called the Interference Law."

Blake merely stared incredulously at the freckled marionette as the slouched girl tried to return a weak smile, a small glint coming to her green eyes as she brought herself to continue once more.

"Can you... Can you keep a secret, umm..."

"Blake... Belladonna. And yes."

The smile grew a bit more into a genuine one, Blake surprised how the girl seemed to take her word for it and brighten up at the confirmation in a rather naïve but affable display of trust, "Excellent! You see, and this is something only very few know, even in the Atlesian scientific community, but... there is something _else_ going on here in Remnant... not precisely a battle against Grimm nor a war for land and property..."

"W-What is it?" Blake asked, unwittingly drawing closer to the girl who harbored information on an evidently intriguing topic.

"It is more like... more like, an _industry_, of sorts... hunting for the resource you and I both know as Mana."

Blake blinked at the revelation, Penny innocently basking in the incredulity to continue the tale with increased gusto like a girl telling a scary story.

"I mean, it is absolutely _mind-boggling _how far back this goes - ever since the discovery of Dust itself, it seems that there are those who have at least been _aware_ of the scope of power attainable by combining Dust with Aura, which explains why there were those in history who even began attempting to fuse Dust within their own bodies!"

"Wouldn't it simply have been to avoid having to carry around extra Dust, or just to add an elemental ability to an Aura attack?"

"_No_," Penny continued with a stronger glint in her eye, "It was merely an added benefit in their quest to _transcend_ the limits imposed on humans and Faunus since birth - but what was once a sacred method used by the predecessors of modern Huntsmen to battle the Grimm became and unscrupulous skirmish to create industrial _profit_ using ruthless mages and mercenaries hired by corporate entities... a threat to the balance of our world which Remnant itself ensured to take measures against and separate from the reality we know today..."

It was strange, but the marionette's beliefs in the existence of a worldwide force was beginning to sound rather similar to the conversation she and Jaune had engaged in with a certain Professor a week before.

"...So you believe in the Oum Theory," Blake practically murmured in more of a statement than a question, keeping quiet as if speaking up would alert some sempiternal police force to their dialogue.

"Undoubtedly!" the bright response came quickly with a grin before Penny went back to her story, "But as I was saying, even a planetary force can be challenged if an entity became powerful enough to do so... it is unlikely, but those in the Abyss are rather cumbersome ones, indeed... thus, the current hunt for mana right underneath everyone's noses!"

Blake straightened out at the mention of the strange term, echoing it to try it on her own tongue, "Abyss?"

"Mhm! That is what they call themselves, you know, the people who chose to stay in those illusion barriers created by Remnant," the redhead reiterated with a seemingly out of place smile, her demeanor finally matching the somber weight of her words as she concluded, "But in the unlikely - and I stress _unlikely_ \- event that an Abismal entity could gain enough mana... the spatial shackles placed by the planet's aura will collapse, unleashing the entire wrath of the Abyss onto every moving creature on Remnant..."

Considering the implications and now understanding why kingdoms like Atlas, and likely Vale, would keep a discovery - or _rediscovery_, to be precise - of mana a secret, Blake narrowed her eyes at the girl, "But then... if this 'Greater Aura' of the planet exists, and has gone through such lengths to keep this knowledge from everyone for our own safety... then how do _you_ know about this? How does _anyone_ know about this?"

Penny now straightened up as well, shifting her weight around a bit in uncertainty before beginning once more, "As time has gone by, war and increased exploitation of natural resources has weakened the planet... therefore, Remnant began selecting a very counted number of what we call 'Natural Ability Users' after the Great War a few generations ago to become informed about the growing danger and begin guarding the barriers that separate us from the Abyss..."

"And you are...?" the cat girl drawled, letting the implication hang in the air which caused the already nervous freckled girl to blush and vehemently shake her head.

"Oh goodness no! I-I am not one of those Users, I am merely an _Aquired_ Ability User designed- er, _trained_, to handle mana and be more sensitive to the aura connecting us all," she finished in a mumble, her head slouched and pink bow drooping a bit before attempting to look up at Blake with a weak smirk, "My... my Father, _he _is a Natural Ability User... he is the one who figured it all out, the first one to start putting all the pieces together about five years ago..."

"Figured _what_ out, exactly?" the ravenette asked, a tinge of concern in her voice as she noticed the shakiness in Penny's.

"That is something I cannot say," the marionette finally declared after a pause, clamming up tight as she took a deep breath and let it disperse along with her uncharacteristically darkened mood, "But my Father is confident that it can be handled before things get out of hand... you see, his Semblance, it lets him figure out the way things _tick_ \- he is the kind of man who can track someone through Grimm-infested woods with little more to go off of than the trail from their Aura and a single shoeprint, always calculating, always predicting... always building, teaching or fighting, too... I owe him everything, and by working with Atlas I _know_ he will help keep us safe!"

Blake held back a grumble, one that had almost escaped partly due to her unsatisfied curiosity and partly due to the redhead's naïvete, "I feel I should inform you that even an optimist might find reality to be quite the opposite when allied with a political party..."

"We shall see about _that!_" Penny simply countered with a confident grin before raising a knowing brow at her amber-eyed counterpart, "Anyway... now that I have kept my part of the deal..."

"...Oh, _that_," the catgirl hedged, unable to keep herself from rolling her eyes in her soured mood after not being able to learn what she'd wanted to, but still decided to keep her end of the bargain, "Alright... it seems you've heard of those Natural Ability Users, then?"

An excited nod from the redhead.

"Well... I _am_ one of those Natural Ability Users."

Penny merely stared at her for a moment... and just before Blake could deem the pause too uncomfortable to bear, the girl made what could only be described as an aerial fist-pump in super slo-mo as she practically sang, "IIIIIIII _knew_ it!~"

Straightening up with an ear to ear grin, Penny then continued, "Of _course_, there could be _no_ other explanation for how anyone could simply _enter_ an artificial illusion barrier like that! Welp, _case closed!_ Very well, Natural Ability User Blake Belladonna, I have memorized your name and face; I now go to enroll myself in Beacon Academy, so have a _wonderful_ day!~"

"..."

The shock and surprise on so many levels hitting the ravenette at once, she didn't even realize the freckled redhead had begun to walk away until the girl leisurely walked past the entryway arches to the courtyard and literally _disappeared_ into thin air.

Blinking again as she went slack-jawed at the sight, a now fairly miffed Blake called out after her, "_Hey!_ How am I supposed to get _out of here!?_"

_**KA-CRUNCH**_

Jolting in place like a startled cat at the sound of very very thick glass cracking above her, Blake slowly looked up to see something she couldn't believe...

_ka... ka-ka-crak crak CRAK!_

"What. On Remnant. Is happenin-"

_CRASH!_

And as if a large, invisible glass dome that had been surrounding her the whole time had broken and fallen apart, Blake scrunched her eyes shut as shattered pieces of what she thought was reality fell to the floor around her until the sounds of the bustling academy avenue brought her back to the present.

Cracking an eye open, Blake was somewhat relieved to find that she was back to the Beacon Academy she knew - the one that _didn't_ include a demolished courtyard - so she immediately began stomping her way past the statue towards the entryway with a glower in her gaze that seemed to part the river of students coming at her. But crossing the entryway arches towards the school, she finally found her targets in question under a tree in the grove on the side of the avenue between the courtyard and campus... well, the secondary targets at least.

"Where's Jaune."

Ren merely looked up from his current occupation of disassembling and reassembling StormFlower on the grassy meadow by the tree as Nora continued running around her partner with her arms straight out her sides pretending to be an airplane - complete with Valkyrie theme song and airplane sounds - before reaching behind himself and tapping the preoccupied Spartan sitting by the tree-trunk itself without breaking eye-contact with the unusually unkempt catgirl exuding a hostile aura.

Snapped out of the trance she seemed to be in as she looked at a certain contact picture on her scroll with the usual mixed emotions, Pyrrha finally looked up with a start at her teammate and then at Blake before responding with some surprise, "Oh! Eh, Jaune? Well... we... believed he was with you. Would you, like to wait for him here?"

Completely ignoring the hint of reluctance behind the ever-polite Mistrali's offer, Blake merely grumbled aloud before turning around in a huff to walk away, "_No_. I can _really_ use someone to talk to who actually makes _sense_ right now, so I guess I'll just have to _find_ him."

Slowing down as she made a decently believable impression of a plane-crash, Nora came to a stop with an incredulous stare at the departing ravenette before turning to face her bronze-clad teammate, "Um, was Blake talking about _Jaune?_ As in, the Jaune _we_ know? ...As in, Jaune _Arc?_"

But now wide-eyed for a completely different reason as they noticed a fairly worrisome detail about the ravenette who had just left, Ren and Pyrrha traded alarmed glances before quickly scurrying up to a standing position.

"Nora," Ren began quickly as he stashed his weapons into his sleeves and spoke with as restrained a panic as his stoic personality would allow, "Go find the rest of team RWBY. We're going to need them _very_ soon."

And with a salute in her evident continuation of her role-play, Nora exclaimed with a heavy accent before zipping away, "Jawohl, Colonel von Stauffenburg!"

Some distance away, Blake barely heard the hammer maiden's strange loud remark but didn't flinch as she simply continued walking towards the campus. Busy wondering why she hadn't just analyzed Penny with _Observe_ when she had the chance and asking herself how such a powerful girl could come across so... _weird_... her irritation was dampened slightly as she reminded herself of her internal promise not to Observe her friends or peers unless she had permission, especially after what had nearly happened with Neptune earlier that morning... whatever it was that had happened between him and Jaune, at least. It simply wasn't her place to pry and possibly uncover a secret she hadn't meant to find out about them - after all, she had secrets of her own that she wouldn't want just anyone knowing about.

However, it was her own secrets that unexpectedly came to the fore as a particularly harrowing comment from a nearby student suddenly caught her attention.

"Yo, check out Belladonna! Freaky!"

"Eh, wha- OH... Dang, are those things _real!?_"

All color draining from her face as she froze in place, the ravenette slowly reached a shaky hand up to her hair... her worst fear coming true and strained emotions reaching their breaking point as a third random passerby put it into words along with an audible flash of a scroll-camera.

"_Dayum_, I didn't know that Blake chick was a _Faunus! _What a deal-breaker..."

Her eyes now watering to the point that she could barely make out Ren and Pyrrha sprinting towards her to attempt to break apart the growing crowd, Blake snapped her head toward the dorm building and took off running with a furious yell.

* * *

"Aw man. Guess I was too late to meet with them."

Jaune placed his hands on his hips as she shook his head at his team's usual Sunday hang-out spot before indulging himself in a post-spar backward stretch with hands still on his hips and a leisurely sigh. Straightening up, he turned back towards the campus and was about to make his way through the steady trickle of students walking on the main avenue away from the building when something on the ground caught his eye.

"Hey... isn't that Blake's?"

Stopping near the statue of his accomplished ancestor, he picked up the long silk-like black ribbon and examined it, deeming it Blake's beyond reasonable doubt as he began walking back towards the dorms, "Hmm... looks like she might've dropped it or something. Meh, guess I'll hang onto it 'till I see her again..."

And so, he left the courtyard to re-enter the dorm buildings, keeping an eye out for any of team RWBY to leave the ribbon with in case he ran into them on his way to his dorm. Of course, he had no such luck. So sighing as he finally reached the hall that led to his dorm room, he was about to pull out his scroll to unlock the door when he suddenly heard a subtle sound from somewhere in the hall.

Turning around to see no one else in the hallway, he strained his ears until he heard it again... unmistakeable in its familiarity.

Someone was crying.

'Where's it coming from?' the blue-eyed blonde pondered as he pressed his ear to his dorm room's door lest the distraught person be inside, but when he heard the distinct sob once more, he no longer had any doubt who it had to be from. He had heard that same sobbing in the library a week before.

Now focusing his gaze on the door across from his own, Jaune was vaguely surprised to see that it in fact wasn't entirely closed, a step closer to the door confirming that the clearer sound of sobbing was definitely coming from within the room. Looking down at the ribbon in his hand and knowing full well that the owner of the ribbon and of the muffled cries behind the door were one in the same, he reached a hand up and softly knocked twice on the door before inching it open and stepping in.

"Um... Hello? It's... me, Jaune."

Taking his first step into the room and catching sight of the impossibly balanced bunk beds supported by rope and several volumes of encyclopedias on the endless regulations of Grifball, he paused when he noticed no one was in any of them. The sobbing seemed to have stopped as well.

However, a single sniffling sound giving away the position on its owner behind the door, Jaune furrowed his brows as he took a second step into the room and peeked behind the door out of curiosity.

No sooner did his eyes meet the disheveled and battered raven-haired girl huddled up in the corner of the room, her head tucked between her knees and unseen behind her arms, when he felt his heart crack a bit from her physical and emotional state.

"B-Blake?" he began weakly, already finding himself having to fight down the knot in his throat that was already threatening to constrict his voice entirely, "What happened?"

Without making any hint at a motion or response, he cautiously made his way to her side by the wall, leaving a few inches of room between them so as not to encroach on that small bubble of space she always appreciated before softly sliding down into a seated position beside her. In the next moment of silence, he merely checked for injury - aside from the significant tearing in her leggings and jacket sleeves, she seemed alright. His eyes drifted up to her disheveled hair, and despite its frazzled state - matted a bit by drying sweat and strangely sticking up in a few places near the top of her head - he couldn't help feeling his face soften a bit as he admired how it still seemed to retain a semblance of beauty about it.

Drawing back in realization of where his train of thought had unexpectedly taken him, he shook his head to refocus on the task at hand and cleared his throat once more to speak.

"I-I mean... you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he began with a little more coherency and volume to his voice before pulling out the ribbon and handing it to her, "But I found this outside in the courtyard... I think it's one of the ribbons you use for Gambol. Though if you wanna talk, I'm here, 'kay? I can only imagine what you're going through..."

His voice, which had finally begun gaining some resolve as he went along, now trailed off when the ravenette lifted her head to glance at the piece of fabric before turning her narrow puffy-eyed gaze to the knight.

"You're _kidding_ me, right?"

Any reply suddenly evaporating from his lips as his mouth went dry, Jaune immediately reverted all his energy to try not to panic lest he make this situation which he apparently had already ruined even worse. But still, his mouth aimlessly tried to word out plausible responses without making a sound as Blake merely scooted a little closer and softly took the black ribbon in her hands, completely ignoring him as she stretched out the accessory to its full length of a mere few inches before raising a brow at him with a softer glare.

"A ribbon for _Gambol?_"

"L-Look," he sputtered out quickly, raising his hands placatingly in what little space there was between them, "I mean, I can tell you look like you've been through some kind of fight, but I know for a _fact_ that it'd take _way_ more than some brawl to throw you off like this, Blake... But I've got _no_ idea what that might be-!"

His words were once again cut off by the sight of the amber-eyed girl rolling her eyes, and fearing he'd lost whatever semblance of respect she may have previously had for him, his mind crashed to a halt when fear was replaced with shock as the girl scoffed before doing the most unexpected, sudden, un-Blake _thing_...

The act of leaning towards him before unceremoniously plopping the side of her head on his shoulder.

Jaune could practically hear his thoughts flatlining as she simply scooted an inch or two closer to him to make herself more comfortable, sniffling a few more times before sighing out her response.

"You're an _idiot_, Jaune."

The blue-eyed knight merely blinked as his mind frantically tried to reconcile the contradiction of things going on at the moment, finally about to babble some half-thought out defense when an unexpected tickling sensation on the side of his neck practically caused him to jerk away from the calm ravenette.

"Bwah! Haha, your hair keeps tickling me-_ wait_."

Suddenly deadpanning as he slowly turned his head to look at the girl's head still on his shoulder, his breath hitched as he saw the culprit of his giggling fit - the mauve-colored tip of a furry cat ear protruding from Blake's hair.

Merely inches away, the ravenette shut her eyes in expectation, trying her absolute best to brace herself for whatever sharp comment or snide remark the blond would spit out about her heritage. But of everyone who'd seen her Faunus traits that day in person or by scroll - who at this point probably numbered the entire student body of Beacon - Jaune was the one she'd decided at that moment to show by_ choice_... her way to make up for what she had done by brushing him off earlier... and having the opportunity so serendipitously placed before her, she figured she may as well commit to it by getting through to his head in the most literally obvious way possible.

But the teasing she expected never came.

"Blake... they're beautiful..."

Blinking in surprise, she stiffly lifted her head to stare at him in disbelief, as if she had just imagined those words coming out and had to see him say it again just to be sure.

"I-I mean, they're amazing!" he tried to correct quickly, misinterpreting her disbelief for offense, "Well, I mean, they're really nice and all and I'm sure they're super useful and stuff too, and-"

"Did you really mean that?" Blake suddenly cut in while breaking eye contact by tilting her head down and letting her hair obscure her expression, barely loud enough to hear but loud enough to get the blonde's full attention.

"Of course," Jaune replied immediately, his voice soft as well but convinced as ever as he went with the first words that came to mind, "They complete your look, like the one thing that was left to make you look absolutely _perfect_, y'know? Heh, I don't think I'll ever be able to see you looking as good anymore without those two on display..."

Unable to hold back the warmth that surged within her and rushed into her cheeks, the catgirl snorted as she finally parted a side of her hair behind her human ear with a hand and looked up at the sheepish knight with a small smile, "Pfft. You know, we really _do_ need to work on your choice of words... you could give a girl the wrong idea being so blunt like that..."

But still... Despite herself, she found herself forced to admit that she no longer minded the embarrassment she'd gone through earlier that afternoon if it meant leading to what had just been said.

"Heh, sorry," he apologized meekly as he scratched the back of his neck, "I just don't see why you'd ever want to hide something as pretty as those..."

Exhaling loudly as she looked to the side, the draft of air blowing the locks of hair on the other side of her face out of the way, she cryptically hedged after a moment of thought, "It wasn't to hide _them_... it was to hide what they represent - my _true_ identity, and therefore the scorn and distrust of humans everywhere, the last thing I wanted when I came here to Beacon."

Ascertaining that there could very well be a deeper meaning in Blake's words, Jaune decided to take it at face value instead of pry as he replied, "But you care deeply about the Faunus, don't you? I've seen how you pay attention in Oobleck's class and always get his highest compliments on every Faunus-related research paper we've had to write... and knowing you, I'd imagine you'd be itching to be on the front lines of any rally if Faunus rights were on the line..."

A small smile came to his lips as Blake almost seemed taken aback at the observation, realizing he had hit the nail on the head when she cracked a smirk at him as well.

"You're _much_ sharper than people give you credit for, you know."

Preening up a bit at the compliment, Jaune grinned as he explained modestly, "It's nothing, really. I like to know what my friends like and don't like... especially when it comes to my own teammates, of course!"

He couldn't for the life of him decipher why the ravenette then had to hold a hand to her mouth to keep from bursting out in laughter, quizzically gazing at her as her brief moment of mirth subsided and she gave him an exaggeratedly slow nod with her amused reply.

"Of _course_... _especially_ your own teammates," she echoed light-heartedly before letting out a sigh that seemed to resurface some of her previous dejection, "Be that as it may, I didn't always make the right choices in those respects... so, me coming to Beacon was a way for me to right some of those wrongs. Hiding my heritage was merely a means to a fresh start."

"I can understand that," Jaune replied sincerely with his own past actions in mind, looking away briefly and whetting his lips as if preparing them to deliver the following counsel as tactfully as possible, "But even if you made a mistake - or many mistakes - it doesn't make your cause any less noble... instead of hiding your beliefs, why not put them out in the open - a constant reminder to motivate you and keep you on the right track?"

Blake merely studied him for a moment, recalling his unexpectedly emotional comments the first time they had ever spoken in his team dorm. Whatever mistakes he'd made before coming to Beacon, he'd surely found a way to forgive himself in the name of his cause... was it not what she wanted in the end as well, to wash away her sins with acts of genuine abnegation towards the people she must protect as a Huntress?

"A knight sworn to protect the kingdom he serves from the darkness that surrounds it, and a girl vying to protect it from the darkness within," she drawled pensively, looking up as if stating their cause to some greater force before leveling a playful smirk at the Arc with a warm gaze, "I suppose Ozpin may have had a point, Jaune... It's almost like we were meant to work together from the start."

"Now you're making fun of me," he crowed as he playfully nudged Blake, earning a small chuckle from the ravenette as she reciprocated his action with a warm smile.

"I'm being serious," she stated before letting her smile die down a bit, "but... I'm not so sure the world is that simple."

Jaune shook his head and replied without missing a beat, "Of course it is. Practicing your beliefs in secret will never change anything, except to cause misunderstanding and contempt. If you want to make a difference Blake... you have to _believe_ in what you stand for, and _stand for_ what you believe in. They build off of each other, and each can only grow when you back them up with public action... it's why we're here, right?"

He watched as she simply opened her mouth once or twice with a blank expression, knowing full well that she was vigorously scouring her mind for an appropriate rebuttal before giving up... and letting her head fall on his shoulder again with an audible grunt.

But this time, Jaune smiled brightly as the two shared a moment in silence, knowing exactly what had happened. Unlike the rest of his friends, the more emotionally conflicted Blake became, the less emotion she showed on her face and tone. So he had learned not to read into her sarcasm, distaste or occasional contentment too much because that's what they were - attempting to interpret them as something else would usually end badly, like he had seen happen to Sun a few days prior when the guy had tried to give her a surprise hug in the main avenue near the area where he and the rest of team JNPR would usually hang out.

The hissing that followed had said it all - surprise hugs were a_ bad_ idea.

He now knew it was when she showed the least emotion externally that her greatest emotional wars were waging within...

"You know what, Jaune?" she interrupted his thoughts as she suddenly began, unexpectedly nuzzling her head a little on his shoulder to get a bit more comfortable - which to his amusement was much like a cat would do, "You're right."

...and he was more than patient enough to wait them out until the right side won.

"No more hiding?"

He smiled as she pulled up what must've been her inventory before pushing the bow into its spatial depths and looking back up at him with an equally bright smile along with her reply.

"No more hiding."

"Great! Well now that we've gotten that sorted out, let's get you some fresh clothes and- UWAH!"

Jaune yelped as he was suddenly pulled up with unexpected strength by the happy ravenette, his questioning expression promptly answered as the catgirl kept his hands firmly held in hers, "Your suggestion sounds great, but _first_... there's something we need to do..."

He could only raise a brow in curiosity at Blake's extremely rare show of elation, "And what's that?"

"...Identify and rid you of those negative status effects once and for all."

* * *

_ffft-PAHT._

"Gah!"

"Oh! I'm sorry!"

_ffft-ffft-ffft-PAHT._

"Hey, watch it!"

"Um, my bad! Won't happen again!"

The red streak continued zipping around the school, however, crashing against several more students before stopping in one of the school's ample walkways near the fountain at its rear to heave a sigh with her hands at her hips in frustration.

'Man... I have to have checked _everyone_ by now,' she huffed internally as she took out a small silver pin and started idly tossing and catching it a few times in one hand while trying to think up any other leads, 'There's no way I could've missed anyone else- oh wait,_ those_ three!'

Her grin growing to immensely adorable proportions as she spotted a fairly familiar trio she had bumped into earlier that semester, she bent her knees and dug in her back foot into her runner's position before launching yet another 'accidental' run-in with the group of Haven students.

What Ruby least expected, however, was the tallest of the three whom she was rapidly approaching from behind suddenly sidestep at the last possible second and yank her back by the hood to force her to a stop.

"Careful there, you might knock someone over running around like that."

Pouting at the grey-haired teen who'd nearly choked her mid-dash just to chide her like a child, the crimsonette bit back her rebuttal when she realized the group had just recognized her.

"Yeah, he's right," the girl with red eyes and mint-green hair drawled with a hint of warning, "Keep it up, and we might think you're starting to make running into us into some kind of_ habit_."

"No no!" Ruby replied with a nervous chuckle, taking a wary step back from the frankly intimidating group as she held up both hands at them placatingly, "It's just klutzy ole me running into things again!"

But her equally nervous grin suddenly faltering as she finally found what she was looking for on nearly every Haven student she could run into that afternoon, Ruby straightened up and hastily cleared her throat as she focused on her target, "But! Uh, now that I think about it... I think it's kinda convenient that we had this little run-in! Yeah! You see, I think I have something that belongs to you..."

The grey and mint haired youths merely traded indifferent shrugs as the red leader dug into her skirt pocket for the little trinket, the third of the black-coated group silently gazing at Ruby with narrowed eyes as the silver-eyed girl found what she was looking for.

"Does... this belong to you?"

Gazing at the silver pin with a vaguely interested raised brow, the young man glanced down at his pin-less Haven blazer and turned to face the crimsonette with a mildly impressed expression, "Actually, it does. Been looking for it everywhere."

"Great!" Ruby cheerily declared as he took it and replaced it on his uniform, puffing out a cheekful of breath that she didn't realize she had been holding due to the growing tension in the air before making a half-step in the opposite direction and sending herself off with an awkward salute, "Welp, see ya later!"

_ffft!_

By that point, she didn't care about getting more info, she just wanted to get _away_. They sure hadn't seemed so ominous the first time she had bumped into them... maybe it really was just the fact that the run-in had happened a second time that it had put them all on edge? Still, it had only taken a passing glance into the fiery eyes of the third one of the group to send a chill down her spine...

"Sheesh, Rubes. You really must be getting out of shape if just a little sprint gets you panting like that."

"_Gah!_"

The red-hooded girl practically jumped out of her skin when the familiar-looking blonde wearing her signature aviators stepped out from behind the fountain-side column that Ruby had chosen to support herself against.

"Y-Yang! You scared me - since when did you get all sneaky and stuff!?"

Leaning on the column cross-armed just a couple feet away from her sister, the blonde bomber merely shrugged as she smacked her lips against the toothpick tip of one of those little umbrella thingies you'd usually find floating in a cheap drink at some bar.

"Meh, you hang around Blakey long enough and you pick up some stuff... in fact, I _feline_ getting the hang of it!"

"Uuugh," the younger girl complained with an exaggerated groan, "That was _bad,_ even for you..."

"Ah well, what can I say? Seven days without a pun makes one _week_," Yang seamlessly retorted with a small smirk under her glasses.

Completely ignoring her sister's least redeeming quality with a facepalm, the young leader merely hedged with a muddled grunt under her hand, "What are you even _doing _here..."

"Same thing you are. Stakeout style."

Realizing the buxom blonde's earnestness as she noticed her gazing at the Haven trio leaving the outer school gardens from the other side of the fountain from behind her shades, Ruby cocked her head to the side in curiosity.

"You've been onto them, too?"

"Ye_p_," Yang replied casually, popping the _p_ as she removed the umbrella thingy from her mouth, "Been trying to get a decent tail on 'em for a few days now, actually. Doesn't it seem strange to you that they're the only team of _three_ visiting from Haven? I didn't even know that was a _thing_..."

Humming pensively as she turned to study the three figures shrinking in the distance until they finally disappeared from sight, Ruby turned her attention back to her sister upon hearing her let out a long yawn.

"Anyway, following them has been next to _impossible_," Yang explained as she all but burnt the piece of wood and paper to a crisp in her fist that she clenched in time with her last word, "Every time I get close, it's like they know they're being followed - they take a turn or two and vanish before I even know what happened!"

"Well it explains why they got all scary when I bumped into them," Ruby mumbled under her breath in mild annoyance, eliciting a raised brow from the brawler.

"Yeah well, I gotta hand it to ya for that little fast one you pulled out there, you little con-girl, youuu~" Yang confessed before grabbing Ruby's cheek and wagging it as she cooed, "Looks like my baby sis has got what it takes to join Ocean's Thirteen!~"

"Ow! Hey, _stahp!_" Ruby complained adorably before finally wrestling herself to freedom, "And as if! Wouldn't it be Ocean's _Fourteen_ with me in it?"

"Nope. Heard one of them died about a year ago from pneumonia or something. Terrible way to go. Besides, now you got the hookup knowing the leader's nephew and all..."

Letting her open-ended statement sink in on the younger girl who merely held a hand to her chin in thought, Yang watched in amusement as Ruby's silver eyes widened in realization.

"_Nooo_, you mean _Neptune!?_"

"Yep, should've been obvious by now, sis. The looks, the hair... and the guy's name is Danny _Ocean_, for crying out loud!"

Ruby gave a curt nod at the evidence.

"Hm. Makes sense."

"Maybe when your older, though. After all, you still drink _milk_~" the fiery blonde teased, mocking the younger girl with her own line that'd been used at the beginning of the year and earning a rather adorable deadpan in the process before changing the subject, "But the important thing is that we've got our first solid lead... Best part is that I remember the guy's name - he was the one who forfeited against Pyrrha a while back - Mercury Black. I'd have asked Blake to come along since it would've made figuring out more about them from the beginning much easier, but I didn't wanna risk her relapsing into obsessive mode... and she's already spending such a large chunk of her time with _Saber-boy_, anyways..."

Chuckling a bit as she caught the hint of contempt in Yang's voice rooted in her natural inclination to possessive jealousy, Ruby still had to admit that Jaune's constant attention to her teammate was beginning to grate on her nerves as well. Though of course, she would never ever _ever_ attribute that to jealousy brewing within her own chest... right?

"Well... I guess we can talk to her about that some other time, we've bot bigger fish to fry now. And, at least she seems happy with him?" she ended with what sounded more like a question in her unconscious reluctance to accept it.

"_Veeery_ happy if you ask me."

"ugh..."

"Makes me wonder if maybe I'm missing out on something..."

"_Ugh._"

"And _wait a second_," Yang suddenly remarked with narrowed eyes at the crimsonette, worrying the little girl as an ear-to-ear grin slowly began to spread across her face, "And did you make a _cat pun_ just now!?"

"_UGH!_"

But without a moment to let the girl react, the blonde brawler swept up the girl in a single motion to lock her in for a long and _very _unwelcome noogie as she cried out in glee, "This has to be the best day _ever!_ My little baby sister is _finally _taking after me and continuing the Xiao Long legacy!"

The long string of adamant and bewildered _NOs_ in succession joined the sounds of cascading fountain water in the afternoon breeze through the gardens.

* * *

**A/N:** _Hi there, **TPS** here! So uh... more than six weeks since my last update..._

_My bad._

_Life happening, mostly. Not a bad thing, just **stuff**. But a **huge** thanks to everyone who's kept in touch to check on me while I was away, it was really nice of you guys! :D Also, and this I have to say surprised me like you wouldn't believe, **TGG** \- despite my lengthy absence - never ceased to gain a follower per day, **every single day. **ASFSFGDFAFAFSGSAAAGH! You guys are awesome! And crazy! A little bit of both! I mean, that's some **incredible** support if I do say so myself! ^.^ Thanks so much for the reads and reviews - and for the record - my average post time between chapters is **still under two weeks**, just like I had promised in a/n#2. Just putting that out there._

_Also, it's worth noting that **Polendina** as Penny's surname is indeed **canon**. Monty had it in the works - though it's yet to come out in the show officially, if it ever does._

_So please don't hate me... And to placate your anger, I give you this insanely long chapter chock full of easter eggs - and speaking of easter eggs - this adorably cute bunny rabbit!:_

() ()

(^.^)

C(")(")

_**So cute!** Anyway, that being said, don't forget to** Fave, Follow and Review** to show your continued support as I get my writing mojo back on track. Till next time..._

_**And Happy Reading!**_


	10. The Curse

**_The Curse_**

**A/N: **_Okay, as much as I've grown to dislike writing pre-chapter a/n's - since you, dear reader, are reading this story for its content and __**not**__ for my ramblings about random stuff, and I feel that only the best authors like **Coeur A'A **and **SS Cyndaquil **can actually pull it off anyway - I now have something to say that I believe would be best placed here._

_First off, **wow**. Getting real close to that **700 followers **mark and **350 review **mark. I can't even begin to express how appreciative I am for your support for what started as just a writing exercise to get my mind through a brief bout with writer's block! That being said, however, I can now say beyond a doubt that the last chapter was the first one that can be said received mixed reviews._

_**The Penny/Ozpin fight that mirrors the first battle in The Gamer manga in several respects.**_

_On the one hand, it had **exactly** the effect I'd hoped for - many of you are making the connections between the RWBY characters and Gamer characters that I wanted, since it creates an expectation that'll fuel speculation while setting up for some twists coming later ;) **However,** it had the added backlash of what some reviewers alluded to as "cheapening the story."_

_After rereading it a few times, I can say that I **totally** get that. Changes **have **been made, though they're **not** particularly major - like I said, I was going for the mirrored event to set up parallels between the two worlds and as a marker to show that Blake's journey is just beginning. But hey, the joy of being an author in an **awesome **site like this is being able to have these learning experiences and move on as a better writer than the day I was before :)_

_So even though I don't regret my decision to follow a Gamer event closely just like many a great author here has followed a RWBY event closely (sometimes even using the same character lines as seen in the show), you can rest assured that it is the **last **mirrored event I had intended to write for this fic in the first place and that I've taken the advice from many of you to heart! So thanks again_

_Now, enough of my rambling - **Onto the story!**_

* * *

The two teens turned another corner and stopped, each lightly panting as they turned to check their surroundings without a single sign of what they were looking for.

"Have we lost her?"

"We lost her," Ren huffed, taking another deep breath and exhaling slowly as he let his Aura dissipate his fatigue after running around Beacon for several minutes straight.

"It's extremely unlike Blake to have been as remiss as to not having realized her bow had come undone," Pyrrha mused aloud as she quickly caught her breath like the trained athlete she was, "I wonder what would've caused her to seem so erratic."

"Not sure, but at this point she could be anywhere," Ren now began to reason as they checked the school directory they'd stopped next to, "We checked the entirety of the courtyard and the length of the main avenue in case she tried to double back or run away, and we've confirmed she must still be on campus. We can assume she may have picked the most logical place to hide, somewhere we'd either think to look last or a place where it'd be _extremely_ difficult to find her..."

The Mistrali nodded in accord with his reasoning, "Then it's likely the latter. Should we begin with the library?"

Eyeing the directory more closely with narrowed eyes, the stoic hummed before speaking up, "Alright. We'll check the library first and work our way back to the dorms, maybe that way we'll have the greatest chance of finding Jaune on the way as well."

"Excellent, we now have our bearings," the champion replied with more assurance, sincere worry in her eyes for the ravenette's whereabouts despite the flutter of excitement within at the prospect of joining up with team JNPR's leader for the afternoon after delivering Blake to the rest of her team, "But there's one more thing..."

Glancing back at the expectant redhead, Ren easily guessed the loose end, "Nora?"

"You know how she gets when she doesn't know why she's doing something and loses interest."

Ren hummed once more in agreement, both brows rising at once in acknowledgment of his partner's short attention span as he pulled out his scroll and speed-dialed the hammer maiden, "Nora?"

'_Oh hey there, Renny!_' the voice answered promptly, chipper as always, '_How ya doin'?_'

"Fine. How's the search going?"

There was a slight pause before the voice drawled a reply, '_Uh, search? ...Ohh, riiight, that's what I was doing. You see, funny story Renny, I was running through the rear courtyards doing... you know, the thing you asked me to do... when I noticed this super awesome cabbage stand in the school gardens, and I saw them and told myself I just HAD to have 'em!_'

Pyrrha cocked her head in curiosity as she could've sworn she saw her teammate sweatdrop at his scroll when he replied, "Nora. Beacon doesn't _have_ a cabbage stand."

"..."

'_Ohhhhhhhhh... that explains a lot_.'

And at that, the jade fighter picked up a second voice through the line from someone rapidly approaching Nora's location, and it didn't take long to infer that it belonged to a fairly ticked gardener from the student body.

'_MY CABBAGES!_'

'_Eep! Uh, Ren, I'll have to get back to you about that!_' Nora's voice now came through as the rushing of wind across the line indicated that the orange-haired powerhouse had taken to fleeing.

"Nora, you have to focus on finding team RWBY," Ren repeated, struggling to keep his voice calm by the end as it seemed they were about to have a whole new problem on their hands.

'_Huh, he's pretty fast for a gardener. Hold on, lemme just take care of this guy real quick._'

His eyes widening a bit at the implication, Ren exhorted through the line, "Nora, _don_-"

But he and even Pyrrha standing nearby could only wince at the sudden _WHOOMP_ heard across the line followed by the seemingly receding cry of the young gardener.

'_MY LLLEEEEEeee...!_'

However, Pyrrha turned after another moment or so from behind the directory, furrowing her brows before finally speaking up, "Ren, do you hear that?"

"Huh?"

It only took another second before each identified the approaching sound.

"...eeeEEEEEGS!"

_CRASH! -PAHT!_

Staring wide-eyed at the twitching heap of a gardener a few dozen yards away who had thankfully landed in a small linen depot that the housekeeping staff would use for the dorms, Pyrrha wordlessly gaped at her teammate's work until Ren started pulling her back by the arm, "Goodwitch is likely already on her way, she'll take care of it. _We_ need to head to the library, _now_."

'_Okay! Got that taken care of! What were you saying again, Renny?_'

Turning his attention to the scroll, he took a long slow breath and then commanded, "Nora, find team RWBY and meet us at the library, got it?"

'_Roger that, I think I see two of them near the fountain now! See ya soon!_'

"Two's good enough," he sighed as he continued half-dragging his teammate through the halls.

"Are you sure he'll be alright?" Pyrrha asked, still concerned with the kid as she began keeping up with the stoic.

"Of course. That's why Nora always goes for the legs - it avoids as many major internal organs as possible."

"Oh dear... I simply couldn't imagine the kind of person who would actually _teach_ her that kind of style," the Mistrali mused as the pair continued their way towards the library.

But in looking back in the direction of the accident, she never noticed the knowing smirk that had spread across the stoic's lips at her last remark.

* * *

"Your suggestion sounds great, but _first_... there's something we need to do..."

"And what's that?"

"...Identify and rid you of those negative status effects once and for all."

Jaune froze, his cerulean eyes searching in Blake's amber ones and finding nothing but the highest conviction in their resolve.

"You... you can _do_ that?"

"Of course," the ravenette replied with more of her usual muted emotion, but still evidently content nonetheless, "Even if it's some sort of ailment, the fact that it's become a system element means I must be able to interact with it in some way, doesn't it?"

The young knight milled over her reasoning in his head as he pensively glanced to the side before slowly nodding.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Alright then, first thing's first," she then announced, letting go of his hands to take a step back towards the middle of the room and clearing her throat before continuing, "Time to get a handle on what's holding you back. _Observe_."

* * *

**Name: Jaune Arc  
****Class: The Knight****  
****Level: Lv16 _(Nxt lvl: 87.3%)_  
Rank: _D (Att: E | Def: E | Sem: S)  
_****Race: Human  
****Title: _Paladin of Remnant  
_****Attribute: Genuine, Charismatic, Cursed**

**...**

**HP: 20000/20000  
****MP: 800/800**

**...**

**STR: - 150 _-135 +_**

**VIT: - 235 _-211.5 +_**

**DEX: - 80 _-76 +_**

**INT: - 7 +**

**WIS: - 15 +**

**LUK: - 42 +**

**...**

**Points: 30**

**Status: Status Effect _[The Red Queen's Curse_ (highest)_]  
_****\- Status Effect _[Dark Aura Invasion _(intermediate)_]  
_****\- Status Effect_ [Muscle Soreness _(low-intermediate)_]_**

**Background: An outgoing, goofy and all around friendly person. Treats people equally without any problems expressing himself to strangers and bonds with them easily, showing a lot of confidence which can at at times get out of hand and backfire - especially during his pursuit of romance. Maintains an unselfish manner regardless of the situation and cares for his friends and the people around him, being protective of them and having a sense of responsibility focusing on the well being of others before his own. **

**Is also obsessed with being a hero due to his family line. However, being afflicted by _The Red Queen's Curse_, a negative stats effect, and _Dark Aura Invasion_, a negative progress effect, since early childhood, he was never formally trained like the rest of his family, causing lack of self-esteem and willingness to perform dishonest actions to achieve his end goal.**

**Emotions: Curiosity. Content. Fond.**

* * *

"Um... is everything alright?" Jaune finally asked after what felt like a minute of Blake staring at the status window.

But in reality, in Blake's mind it was more like _scouring_. Everything new about the young knight only seemed to raise questions of its own, from the peculiar title and attributes to the background and status effects themselves. However, the thing causing her the most perplexion at the moment despite the situation was his emotions. What could he possibly be _fond_ about right now?

However, a clearing of the throat from the subject of her intrigue caused her to turn to the more pressing matter of actually replying to him.

"Oh... uh, yes," the ravenette drawled absently, barely paying the blonde any mind as she continued staring at the window in an attempt to find a viable cop-out method to excuse the delay, "I, just noticed you had thirty points to use for your attributes... just um, just thinking of a few ways to distribute them."

"Ah, that's not a problem," Jaune replied airily with a wave of his hand, the catgirl's excuse apparently enough to allay any suspicion as he casually pulled up the status window from the party system Blake had left running since earlier that morning, "I'd been thinking about that and was actually gonna make the adjustments today!"

And with a steady stream of taps, Blake hummed at the changes as he finished making the adjustments.

* * *

**Name: Jaune Arc  
****Class: The Knight****  
****Level: Lv16 _(Nxt lvl: 87.3%)_  
Rank: _D (Att: E | Def: E | Sem: S)  
_****Race: Human  
****Title: _Paladin of Remnant  
_****Attribute: Genuine, Charismatic, Cursed**

**...**

**HP: 20000/20000  
****MP: 800/800**

**...**

**STR: 150 _-135 _**

**VIT: 240 _-216_**

**DEX: 90 _-81_**

**INT: 12**

**WIS: 20 **

**LUK: 47**

**...**

**Points: 0**

**Status: Status Effect _[The Red Queen's Curse_ (highest)_]  
_****\- Status Effect _[Dark Aura Invasion _(intermediate)_]  
_****\- Status Effect_ [Muscle Soreness _(low-intermediate)_]_****_  
_**

**Background: An outgoing, goofy and all around friendly person. Treats people equally without any problems expressing himself to strangers and bonds with them easily, showing a lot of confidence which can at at times get out of hand and backfire - especially during his pursuit of romance. Maintains an unselfish manner regardless of the situation and cares for his friends and the people around him, being protective of them and having a sense of responsibility focusing on the well being of others before his own. **

**Is also obsessed with being a hero due to his family line. However, being afflicted by _The Red Queen's Curse_, a negative stats effect, and _Dark Aura Invasion_, a negative progress effect, since early childhood, he was never formally trained like the rest of his family, causing lack of self-esteem and willingness to perform dishonest actions to achieve his end goal.**

**Emotions: Curiosity. Content. Fond.**

* * *

"Not bad, but it seems the negative status effects have grown in proportion to your stats. They must be based on a percentage of your total abilities," Blake observed as she tapped a finger to her chin in thought.

Jaune snapped his fingers in mild frustration, noticing the same issue in his stats before he responded, "Darn, you're right. VIT and DEX only went up by barely _one_ each in the end... it's like a waste of fifteen points!"

"Not if I can help it," Blake assured as she rubbed her hands together in preparation of her following action before suddenly pausing and raising a brow at the knight, "But why distribute your remaining points that way? I thought you said LUK was irrelevant."

"Eh, _well_," he began sheepishly, scratching his cheek as he now seemingly preferred eye contact with his status window more than with the ravenette herself, "First, I needed to see how VIT and DEX would work against the stat effects - I'm pretty comfortable with STR at the moment thanks to my Semblance... and there's this test coming up for Port's class early next week that I could _really_ use a leg up on..."

"And LUK?" Blake pressed on, her voice a little sterner as her brow quirked up again in question.

"As for LUK... yeah, about that... you see, I'm not totally sure what you're about to try on me. So I figured I could use all the luck I could get?"

Letting her jaw slacken a bit in muted offense as she deadpanned at the nervously chuckling knight in front of her, Blake simply crossed her arms and shook her head, "Dick move, Jaune. Dick move. Consider it the utmost benevolence on my part that I'm still willing to rid you of those status effects."

He sighed as he let his head drop a bit in dejection, "Yeah, sorry about that."

Rolling her eyes as she fought back the small urge to smirk at his antics, she merely grumbled as she commanded the inventory into existence and pulled out a few Green Dust Crystals.

"Fond of his own _skin_, apparently," the ravenette mumbled to herself before beckoning the knight over who shuffled pitifully to her spot in the middle of the room.

"Oh stop being so dramatic," she continued flatly as he stood in place with another sigh, "If I were truly upset, I'd have kicked you out already."

He simply narrowed his eyes at her as he quipped in reply, "Right. Thanks for the pep talk."

"If it's any consolation, I might even like you again after some groveling at my feet and the delivery of a freshly prepared albacore tuna sandwich on marbled rye."

"Such words... Really Blake, I think you should take up writing poetry."

The catgirl finally cracked a smile when she noticed he was no longer able to keep the corners of his lips from twitching upwards, shaking her head with a scoff as she play-punched him on the shoulder, "Really? Poetry? ..._Dork_."

"Well it's either that or become Xena: The Ninja Princess."

"Shut uuup," she cried out playfully as she made pretend to choke the chuckling blonde by the neck with both hands, obviously something she couldn't do with a fistful of crystals, "Just let me fix you, already. I did this to myself earlier and it worked well enough."

Jaune merely paused before his sight drifted down to her torn leggings and apparently flawless skin underneath, nodding slowly as he had to internally agree that whatever she'd done had worked _quite_ well indeed.

"H-Hey!" Blake scolded with a rapidly growing blush as she followed his line of sight downwards to see what he was looking at, causing his eyes to jerk back up to hers as she held a finger out at him in warning, "Don't... _D-Don't_ look at my legs again until after I've changed! It's enough that I had to deal with what I did earlier to have you now here... gawking at them..."

"Sorry again," he meekly offered as she gruffly grabbed his arm and yanked his sleeve back to expose his skin while she readied a single crystal in her other hand.

"Well... at least your sarcasm is improving," she quietly admitted about his earlier retorts with a sigh before jamming the crystal onto his arm, "_Vecchian Recovery!_"

_SHOOM!_

**_BEEP!_**

**[You failed to remove the status effect.]**

"What now," she half-asked, half-stated at the glowing red window with a fairly miffed expression.

**_PING!_**

**[Negative Status Effect(s) have been reduced.]**

'Hm. Well that's _something_, at least. But these effects must be pretty high resistance... if I'd have known this would happen, I'd have leveled up _Vecchian Aura Recovery_ some more,' she mentally reasoned before turning her sights to Jaune's arm once more, "_Observe_."

* * *

**Name: Jaune Arc  
****Class: The Knight****  
****Level: Lv16 _(Nxt lvl: 87.3%)_  
Rank: _C__ (Att: D | Def: D | Sem: S)  
_****Race: Human  
****Title: _Paladin of Remnant  
_****Attribute: Genuine, Charismatic, Cursed**

**...**

**HP: 20000/20000  
****MP: 800/800**

**...**

**STR: 150 _-112.5_**

**VIT: 240 _-180_**

**DEX: 90 _-67.5_**

**INT: 12**

**WIS: 20 **

**LUK: 47**

**...**

**Points: 0**

**Status: Status Effect _[The Red Queen's Curse_ (high)_]  
_****\- Status Effect _[Dark Aura Invasion _(low-intermediate)_]  
_****\- Status Effect_ [Muscle Soreness _(low)_]_****_  
_**

**Background: An outgoing, goofy and all around friendly person. Treats people equally without any problems expressing himself to strangers and bonds with them easily, showing a lot of confidence which can at at times get out of hand and backfire - especially during his pursuit of romance. Maintains an unselfish manner regardless of the situation and cares for his friends and the people around him, being protective of them and having a sense of responsibility focusing on the well being of others before his own. **

**Is also obsessed with being a hero due to his family line. However, being afflicted by _The Red Queen's Curse_, a negative stats effect, and _Dark Aura Invasion_, a negative progress effect, since early childhood, he was never formally trained like the rest of his family, causing lack of self-esteem and willingness to perform dishonest actions to achieve his end goal.**

**Emotions: Wonder. Content. Desire.**

* * *

'But the effects became weaker... so Vecchian Aura Recovery is still working!' the catgirl exclaimed internally with a small measure of victory, idly reading through the rest of the page as she got the next crystal in position, 'Alright, let's keep- _wait_. _D-Desire!?_'

Her jaw dropping at the strange description of his emotional stats, she quickly turned her head up towards the knight... only to have her blush return full force as she caught him looking down at her legs once more.

"_Jaune!_"

"B-Bwah!" he jumped, startled at the sudden attention and face going beet red as he realized he'd been caught, "_I-I'm sorry again!_"

"You- wha- how... _ugh_, the _nerve_ of some people!" Blake cried out indignantly, the surge of emotion and desire to boot his pervy self out of the room so sudden that it actually triggered _Gamer's Mind_ and forced her to think through the situation as rationally as possible.

Of course, Jaune had been caught doing a no-no. But then again... hadn't she been guilty of the same crime the first time she visited his dorm? And her offense had been much worse than seeing just some _leg_...

And with just that, it didn't take long to admit that the more she thought about it, the quicker she should come around to forgiving him.

So... maybe she could just continue helping him out, then. After all, she wasn't entirely mad at him - he and her, along with any other teenager on Remnant, shared the same kind of weaknesses. And that was _totally_ something she could understand. So being that her offense had been _much_ worse than his, then _maybe_ she could just go back to removing his status effects and let him enjoy a good _peek_ if he tried it again so they could be even-

"U-Um look, I-" Jaune began, starting to take a step back as he noticed Blake's face getting redder by the second the more she stared at him when he yelped at her sudden reaction of grabbing him by the arm.

"Wait! Just," she paused to wipe a lock of hair that had fallen in front of her face out of the way, taking a couple of deep breaths to control herself after her latest train of thought had begun making her _too_ warm for comfort, "Wait..."

Letting himself get pulled back to her as she kept her grip on him without making eye contact, Jaune's fear turned to surprise when the grip on his arm tightened and he was suddenly spun around with his back practically turned to Blake. His attempt to turn his head to see her behind him was met with a hard poke to the back.

"Ack!"

"Look away."

"Bu-"

"_Look. Away_," she repeated sternly, his head facing the door now with a sigh as she pulled his sleeveless arm back across his back as comfortably as she could place it and held it in place, "And don't move."

He nodded with his submissive reply, "'Kay. I guess I deserve that."

"...You deserve much worse."

'Or much _better_, depending on how you look at it~' a small voice within the deepest part of Blake's consciousness spoke up to surprise her, the ravenette screwing her eyes shut as she forced the reader's voice she often mentally used for _Ninja's of Love_ back into the depths of her mind, '_Shut it._ And _Gamer's Mind_, I don't trust you anymore.'

Not that she expected an internal argument to ensue at her current thoughts, but having to fight down her body's natural reaction to this kind of proximity with an admittedly handsome young man alone with her in a bedroom was more than enough reason to be tough on herself. Clearly, her sense of 'justice' was at least a _little_ skewed...

So brushing off the previous mishap as her lingering blush finally receded, she held another crystal to his arm and simply went through the motions, "_Vecchian Recovery!_"

_SHOOM!_

**_BEEP!_**

**[You failed to remove the status effect.]**

**_PING!_**

**[Negative Status Effect(s) have been reduced.]**

"_Vecchian Recovery!_"

_SHOOM!_

**_BEEP!_**

**_PING!_**

**[You failed to remove the status effect.]**

**[Negative Status Effect(s) have been reduced.]**

"_Vecchian Recovery!_"

_SHOOM!_

**PING!**

**[Status Effect _|Muscle Soreness|_ has been dispelled.]**

"Perfect," Blake mumbled with a small smile before looking up at the blonde knight who seemed to be rolling his shoulders with some surprise, "How do you feel?"

"Really good, actually," he replied gratefully, "What'd you do?"

"Apparently you've been sore for some reason... my healing skill took care of that."

"Heh, yeah... funny story," Jaune drawled in response, sheepishly scratching the back of his head before adding in curiosity, "So does having my arm behind my back like this help me heal or something?"

Even though he couldn't see her, it didn't keep Blake from deadpanning at him from behind anyway, "_No_, it's to dissuade any further concoction of lewd fantasies in your pervy little mind..."

Shifting her weight behind him as she found a bit of irony in her words, she couldn't help adding in a low mumble, "As well as _mine_..."

"What was that?"

"_Nothing_. Shut up," the now slightly conflicted catgirl commanded with shut eyes and a quick shake of her head whilst mentally berating her slip of the tongue before regripping his arm and continuing her work. It took almost a dozen more beeping red failure notifications until the next blue window popped up with good news.

**PING!**

**[Status Effect _|Dark Aura Invasion|_ has been dispelled.]**

Jaune took a deep relaxed breath and let it out slowly as soon as Blake had finished reading the window in front of her, barely ticking his head in her direction before mentioning, "Something feels different."

Humming in contemplation, Blake decided to see for herself, "Alright. _Observe_."

* * *

**Name: Jaune Arc  
****Class: The Knight****  
****Level: Lv16 _(Nxt lvl: 87.3%)_  
Rank: _B__ (Att: C | Def: C | Sem: S)  
_****Race: Human  
****Title: _Paladin of Remnant  
_****Attribute: Genuine, Charismatic, Cursed**

**...**

**HP: 20000/20000  
****MP: 5000/5000**

**...**

**STR: 150 _-90_**

**VIT: 240 _-144_**

**DEX: 90 _-54_**

**INT: 12**

**WIS: 20 **

**LUK: 47**

**...**

**Points: 0**

**Status: Status Effect _[The Red Queen's Curse_ (intermediate-high)_]_****_  
_**

**Background: An outgoing, goofy and all around friendly person. Treats people equally without any problems expressing himself to strangers and bonds with them easily, showing a lot of confidence which can at at times get out of hand and backfire - especially during his pursuit of romance. Maintains an unselfish manner regardless of the situation and cares for his friends and the people around him, being protective of them and having a sense of responsibility focusing on the well being of others before his own. **

**Is also obsessed with being a hero due to his family line. However, being afflicted by _The Red Queen's Curse_, a negative stats effect, and _Dark Aura Invasion_, a negative progress effect, since early childhood, he was never formally trained like the rest of his family, causing lack of self-esteem and willingness to perform dishonest actions to achieve his end goal.**

**Emotions: Curious. Content. Exhilarated.**

* * *

"Well _that's_ interesting," Blake observed as she noticed the obvious increment in his stats and his intriguing emotional state, "How are you feeling now?"

"Not sure how to put it... but I'm feeling good... like, _really_ strong kind of good."

She blinked at him as he turned around loosening up both arms in a fighter's shaking motion, her expression hardening into a narrow-eyed glare as they were now facing each other once more, to which he then raised both hands up placatingly.

"I won't stare again, _promise_. It's just... I feel like I can take on a Goliath right now!" he exclaimed as he looked down at both hands glowing white with aura and flexed with elation.

Crossing her arms and keeping her fist full of crystals to the side as the other propped up her chin in thought, Blake continued, "Well that might have to do with the fact that your Mana Points have also increased more than five-fold in the last few seconds... along with the steady reduction of your negative stat effects."

"Hey, I was gonna ask about that," Jaune replied somewhat off-handedly, unintentionally mirroring the ravenette as he now crossed his arms as well, "You mentioned my Mana Point bar, like MP. But before Mountain Glenn when I'd check my stats under the party system, it was always _AP_. It's not like I use Mana or something now... right?"

The catgirl hummed in contemplation, brows furrowing and cat ears twitching a bit as she took an objective look at the knight in front of her, "That's a good point. If Mana is some sort of combination between Dust and Aura, you shouldn't have had that in your status window since you've yet to even use Dust in combat..."

"But whenever I use my Semblance through Crocea Mors, it's exactly like executing a high-powered Dust attack... Weiss said so."

At that, Blake quizzically cocked her head at the blonde knight who quickly realized what he'd just let slip, now chuckling nervously as he scratched the back of his neck and confessed, "Eheh, yeah. She and I sorta just had a sparring match about an hour or two ago right after I left the library... and things got intense."

A raised brow in reply.

"We... kinda blew up Port's class."

Her jaw slackening slightly at the fairly unexpected development, she could only ask, "And, who won?"

The smug smirk that slowly grew across the knight's face said it all, and despite Blake's instincts telling her that it had to be a lie, her _Observe_ skill begged to differ. Somehow, not only had Weiss-friggin-_Schnee_ deigned Jaune Arc worthy to be sparred against as a swordsman, but had actually faced _defeat_ to his budding skills!

But his face suddenly dropping all semblance of confidence in apparent alarm, he clasped both hands pleadingly as he implored, "But Weiss _can't_ know that I told you about this - she'll _kill_ me!"

However, the confident smirk had now found its way onto the ravenette's face, fully impressed by the blonde leader's commendable progress, "Hmpf. I'm sure by now she realizes that all she can do is _try_." But as his pleading glare only maintained its intensity, she added with a small chuckle, "_Alright_, you have my word."

"Alright, _thank you_," Jaune let out along with a heavily relieved breath before straightening up and scratching his temple in thought, "But you're right. I'd never used Dust before, not a day in my life... Aaagh, I just wish I could learn more about this weird Semblance - but no one could've _possibly_ known what kind of effect it'd have on me before all of this!"

But several things coming together for her as the mental cogs working within her mind seemingly all clicked at once, Blake quickly pulled up his status window and looked his information all over again before pointing at a singular line of data.

"That's where you're wrong," the catgirl now declared as the revelation continued growing on her, "_She_ did."

"Who?"

"_The Red Queen_," Blake specified as she scanned over his stats to confirm her suspicions, "_She_ must've known what you were capable of becoming... Paladin of _Remnant -_ _your_ Semblance... _Weiss_' words... this isn't a coincidence. Whoever this person was, she never wanted you to reach your full potential and must've cursed you from a young age."

"_Cursed?_" Jaune remarked with some disbelief in his voice, "Like a witch or something?"

The ravenette nodded, "Exactly. Think about it - your abilities have been _ridiculously_ nerfed; but not only that, your Aura's very _ability_ to grow naturally was impeded, which must be precisely why you haven't been able to level up nearly as quickly as you should... _Dark Aura Invasion_... yes..."

She scratched her chin at Jaune's status window once more before glancing up at him with a raised brow in question, "How exactly was your Aura unlocked again?"

Of all things, the ravenette didn't expect his roundabout response.

"Well uh... it was, Pyrrha. She did it."

"..._Pyrrha?_" Blake echoed incredulously, trying to figure how far back the partners' relationship must've gone, "You mean...?"

Jaune shook his head in dismissal of the implication, "Not as far back as you'd think. Initiation Day."

"Wait wait wait, you're saying your Aura didn't get unlocked until your first day _here_ at Beacon?" she retorted with the charged question, causing the knight to gulp as he now seemed to be carefully debating his next words.

"N-No... I mean _yes!_ Yeah. That's... that's what happened."

Blake shifted her weight at the new development as the questionable background info from his status window came to mind, her hip jutting out a bit which only defined its natural curve even more in the Arc's eyes as her arms remained tightly crossed. However, quickly recalling the young man's benevolence at having listened to her faults and subsequently worked with her misgivings, she took a deep breath and exhaled in her internal decision to be as benign as possible with his explanation... and possible confession.

But that wasn't about to dampen the incredible depth of skepticism she was currently exuding.

"You do realize that makes absolutely _no_ sense, right? You're telling me _no one_ had unlocked your Aura before coming to Beacon?"

"No one ever tried," he admitted with an almost pitiful shrug.

Her breath hitching as she held back her initial reaction of calling out what had to be a lie, the catgirl simply settled with asking an auxiliary question which she honestly felt she didn't need to ask a Hunter-in-training, "But what about combat academy? You went through _four years_ of preliminary combat instruction without any of your instructors ever even giving it a shot?"

Of course such a question would reveal the truth; in her mind, Blale knew she'd never forget the life-changing - and possibly life-_saving_ \- act of having her Aura unlocked by her cherished childhood guardian... the puma-faunus who'd passed his love of books onto her during her early days in the White Fang before she ever entered tutelage under Adam, Tukson Creed.

But it revealed a truth she had never expected to learn.

"Blake..."

The word... her _name_... so unexpectedly uttered with such sadness that it caused her heart to feel like it'd been blindsided by a charging Ursa as she watched Jaune's entire body slouch under a weight of dejection she'd never seen on him before, the catgirl could only wordlessly reach out and place her free hand on his arm as he worked himself up to continuing.

"...I, I never went to a combat academy. I was rejected from every school I applied to."

"..."

"Blake... my transcripts, my records, my _merits_ into getting into Beacon Academy? They were fakes. _Lies_... no one ever unlocked my aura because I'd never even been good enough to pick up a sword in the first place."

The ravenette could only gaze at him in shock before slowly shaking her head in denial, "But you're... and your sword..."

"_This_ thing?" he motioned at Crocea Mors strapped to his hip with what could even be contempt given the context, "Nah. It was hanging over our family fireplace like some ancient tapestry... no one ever knew I took it. My mom passed giving birth to my youngest sister, my dad was out spearheading an anti-Grimm incursion operation somewhere in Vacuo at the time, and my sisters were left with little more than a good-bye note saying that I was leaving and that I'd call them as soon as I could... I came to Beacon a runaway, Blake, a disgrace unworthy of my own _name_."

He couldn't hold eye contact with the clearly bewildered young woman in front of him anymore, so he looked aside with a noticeable sniffle as he wiped his nose with his sleeve. She could tell his eyes weren't watery just yet, but they were definitely getting redder by the second as he finally added gruffly, "You probably think I'm some kind of a sham or something..."

There were many things Blake thought about people, and she'd be the first to admit that they weren't usually the nicest of things. But this was different...

This was Jaune.

Now finding herself in the position of emotional supporter that she'd been in for the first time with him as well the first time they'd spoken in the very room across the hall, Blake had already closed the space between them and wrapped him in a tight embrace before she even knew it.

The sudden full-body contact startling the knight right out of his train of thought, he quickly looked down at the pair of cat ears under his chin and mess of jet-black hair splayed across his chest plate as he stuttered, "B-Blake, what are you-"

"Just stop," the catgirl stated flatly as she squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as she was now holding him, "_Stop_ beating yourself up about it. You know, a few weeks ago, I'd have never imagined myself doing this with _anyone_ right now, but a certain someone taught me not very long ago that when you care about something that really matters to you, you show it with _action_. And that sword cuts _both_ ways, Jaune..."

"Whaddaya mean?" he asked softly, to which she lessened her hold on him just enough to turn her twinkling amber-eyed gaze up to his.

"I _mean_, you did what you had to do for a cause that was bigger than you - not for the recognition nor the glory of the title, but because you truly _care_ about protecting the people you cherish. And there wasn't _anything_ you'd let stop you in reaching that goal," she continued warmly with the smallest of smiles, "That says volumes about you as a person, Jaune... and I don't have to read that in some status window to learn that about you, either."

At that, the blonde knight merely smiled at the young woman in his arms, finally returning the embrace as the two then simply held each other for a few moments more until each separated while still interlocked at their forearms.

"Thanks... for not _reporting_ me, first off," Jaune began, earning a small chuckle from the ravenette before continuing, "And for understanding. I never really thought I'd find someone in this school who could actually get where I was coming from with all this and why I chose to do things this way."

"_Well_," the catgirl retorted lightly, pursing her lips to the side as she picked her next words and added, "I can't exactly condone your actions, and _would_ suggest that you get in touch with your family as soon as you can... but, it's why we're here, right?"

He then narrowed his eyes at her as a hint of a smirk began spreading across his face, "Now you're just using my words against me..."

Blake nodded with a small grin before eventually looking down at their still interlocked arms with a light blush, "Anyway, if I'm going to finish fixing you, I'll need my arms back."

"Oh! Uh, right," Jaune sputtered out as he let her go completely to finish her work, but not even the usually keen ravenette realized that she had unwittingly begun biting her lip with a ghost of a smile as she looked down at her hands that had been warmed by his Aura and separated the next few crystals to use on him.

But now clearing her throat as she grabbed a hold of his sleeveless arm, Blake looked back up at him with a reverent expression, "Pyrrha couldn't unlock your Aura completely... but she did an excellent job. It wouldn't be surprising if her action is what dispelled _Dark Aura Invasion_ enough to unlock the potential in your HP that withstood the attack from the Ursa Rex we faced a while back. I can't imagine it was an easy task on her part, and I don't think either of us could've survived if she hadn't."

"Hey, you've _both_ done a great job," the knight countered warmly, his reassuring smile causing Blake to feel that strange surge of warmth within herself that she still couldn't quite comprehend, "If I could say that it was thanks to Pyrrha who got me started and gave me the tools to succeed, then one could say that it's thanks to _you_ that I learned how to use them in a way I could understand... and _Weiss_ too, believe it or not."

His last addition throwing off the moment, Blake snorted as she rolled her eyes, smiling as she looked down and placed the first crystal on his arm, "Uh huh, _so_ glad I could help. _Vecchian Recovery!_"

_SHOOM!_

"_Vecchian Recovery! Vecchian Recovery! Vecchian Recovery!_"

And in the minute or so that followed with the steady flashes of light that filled the dorm, the two students waited until the ravenette had gone through nearly all but half a dozen crystals before she paused to wipe her forehead, "Status Window."

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv22**

**...**

**HP: 1150/1150  
****MP: 146/850**

**...**

**STR: - 20 **_**+4 +**_

**VIT: - 32 _+6.4 +_**

**DEX: - 21 _+4.2 +_**

**INT: - 22 +**

**WIS: - 7 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 42  
****Money: 6,500,300 Lien**

* * *

"Mmf, I've probably leveled up Vecchian Aura Recovery at least twice by just working on _you_," Blake began informatively as she closed the window and looked up Jaune's status window with the appropriate command, "And maybe it's the fact that I'm without my usual Aura buff when I'm in danger that's hampering its effectiveness at the moment, but even then, I still don't think I'd be able to get _The Red Queen's Curse _under 'intermediate-high'... I guess it must be pretty tough dispelling a status effect you've had most of your life."

"Well, you've done a lot already, so I think we can be happy with what's been done for me today and let you focus a bit more on your own stats," Jaune happily suggested, holding her healing hand back with his.

Blake chuckled as she raised a brow at the knight, not even minding the maintained contact at their hands anymore, "Heh, you mean like trying to find out a way to circumvent having to see the _entire_ status window at once when all I want to see are simply two lines of data?"

"It's a video game info screen," the knight replied with a deadpan, "You're just gonna have to deal with it."

She only groaned in exaggeration as she placed her remaining crystals back in her inventory before retorting, "That's terrible... no better than having to actually bend down and pick up every dropped item that the Grimm leave behind. Remnant _really_ needs to fix the system."

At that, the two merely stared at each other for a moment before bursting into a short fit of laughter, Jaune shaking his head at the catgirl's comment before letting their moment of mirth die down. But letting out a final sigh as they traded grins, the knight gently brought her in for another embrace, leading her to him by her arm which she didn't resist in the least.

"Thanks, Blake. I came in here to cheer you up, and now the one that's been cheered up the most turned out to be _me_."

"Meh, you didn't do so bad, either," she replied wistfully, currently more engrossed with the sensation of Jaune's embrace that she was unconsciously becoming more and more fond of.

After all, it'd been a very long time since she'd last been held like this, and if there was any day where Blake realized that she really needed to be hugged, it was certainly _this_ day.

Of course, she could still recall Yang's embrace a few weeks prior - the brawler's pleas to rest and enjoy the dance which had led to her reassurance of her affection for Blake through her sudden embrace - and she appreciated it greatly. And Jaune's embrace, much like Yang's, was an act she truly appreciated... so why she was enjoying his hug so much _more_ than the brawler's right now was still beyond her, but she didn't mind enjoying it for a few more seconds while she figured it out... not at all...

"Blake?"

Jaune's sudden interjection into her pleasurable musings barely registered in the serene catgirl's mind, barely drawing out a hum in acknowledgment.

"Hm?"

"_Blake_."

His hold on her loosening as he subtly tried a quick shake to get her attention, she only unwittingly tightened her embrace a bit more with an idle grunt that went muffled by his armor as she nuzzled her head onto his chest plate... much like a kitten unwilling to leave its companion's side probably would.

"Mmmf... wait, just one more second..."

"Umm, are we interrupting something?"

The very familiar voice immediately piercing through her hazy mind, Blake jumped upright a few inches away from Jaune as she looked into the wide-eyed silver orbs of her leader at the door... three more faces lightly gaping at the scene from behind her.

"Uh, _guys_," Jaune began nervously with monstrously red cheeks, glancing to his side and seeing the perfectly emotionless ravenette's face that'd clearly been momentarily frozen that way due to shock, "Crazy news... turns out Blake's a _Faunus!_"

"We already _knew_ that, Romeo," Yang stated flatly as she was the first to recover and strode into the room around her younger sister's blushing form, now eyeing the pair with narrowed eyes, "Question _is_... have you now found yourself a starry-eyed Juliette?~"

Finally refocusing her gaze on the blonde bomber who was currently circling them with a predatory smirk, Blake scoffed and crossed her arms tightly in distaste at her partner's comment... but not without giving herself away with the lightest reddening of her cheeks, which was something that wasn't about to escape the lilac-eyed tease's keen vision.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jaune replied with genuine confusion, which only seemed to rile up his fellow blonde's mischievous intent even more.

"'Course you do, judging by those fairly incriminating tears on those leggings of hers~" Yang continued with relish, pointing at Blake's leg wear before directing her verbal assault at the ravenette herself, "Must've been pretty passionate. Just tell me and Rubes here what parts of the room you two defiled and we'll be sure to keep clear~"

"T-That's _not_ what happened!" Blake cried out, unable to hold back her indignation - or growing blush - at her fiery partner's implications.

"She's... telling the truth," Ren, the more unlikely of saviors, began as he stepped into the room with a hand raised, "She was like that _before_ she got here."

The blonde bomber merely paused, her jaw slackening a bit but resetting itself into a smug smirk as she turned to the stoic with her hands at her hips defiantly, "Oho, don't even get me started on asking how _you_ would know about that~..."

"Yes, let's _not!_" Ruby finally butted in, springing into action and holding a hand out at her sister to stop before things got out of hand, "Especially when we have more important stuff to discuss! So now that we've got most of us here, let's just get to _that_, okay? ...Even _if_ Blake and Jaune were using our room before we got here..."

Mentally groaning at the crimsonette's final statement that was muttered aloud, Blake covered her face with her palm, dragging it down with a now audible grumble as Jaune turned to his partner at the door who by now was the only one still keeping silent.

"Speaking of which, where _is_ Nora?"

However, at this point, Pyrrha was no longer able to look up at either her leader nor Blake anymore, idly kicking the floor with a foot which only served to vex the knight greatly. Shaking his head in sympathy for his teammate with a sigh, Ren was the one to answer for her.

"We sent her to find Weiss after having Ruby and Yang join us in our search for Blake."

"Yeah, which kinda brings me to my next questions," Yang now added with more seriousness than she'd previously shown, a hint of concern showing now that she'd taken a good look at her partner, "What happened, Blakey? Your eyes are puffy... were you _crying?_ Why's your bow missing? And how'd Jaune find you before _we_ did?"

But her eyes now narrowing threateningly at the startled knight as they turned red with malice, she engaged Ember Celica with intimidating cracks of her knuckles as she concluded, "Unless Saber-boy here was the _cause_ of all this..."

"_No no!_" both Ruby and Blake defended at once by holding Yang back with outstretched hands, Ruby being the one to placate her with words, "Look, we'll get to that _after_ we've laid out the evidence for our new lead in the Mountain Glenn incident!"

"You've found a lead?" Ren echoed in hopes to diffuse the growing tension, stepping further into the room as Pyrrha silently followed behind him with her gaze still glued to the floor.

Yang huffed, her eyes reverting to their natural lilac color before breaking eye-contact with the pale-faced Jaune and turning to the stoic, "_Yeah_... we've got a pretty good idea of at least _one_ person who knew about what happened in those caves before we ever got there."

"Who?"

Pyrrha's first word, flat and emotionless as she stated it, didn't seem to throw off Ruby's present team, but Jaune and Ren could immediately tell something was off. The difference being, of course, that Ren knew _exactly_ what the reason was, and Jaune didn't...

"_Mercury Black,_" Ruby announced, turning to everyone in the room with conviction in her voice and without a doubt in her mind about the identity of one of the people who'd indirectly caused all of this... the near death experience at the pavilion, Blake's semblance change, and their current predicament between said catgirl and the guy she had to admit she'd begun crushing on at some point in the year.

But even then, everyone's face in the room suddenly went a shade paler as a seventh voice spoke up from just outside the door.

"Did someone say my name?"

* * *

**A/N:** _You know, I realize until now that me starting this story with Yang's brake pun turned out to be pretty fitting... these guys just aren't getting** any breaks** between fights here! -_- But hey, Roman got jipped and the White Fang has been thrown off-balance, so it makes sense that there'd be even **more** action in response to the successful display of Vale's and Atlas' combined forces. So this train's barely getting started! :D_

_As for the surprisingly short posting time between chapters - and relative shortness of **this** chapter - I'd say that it's because they're so closely linked that I'd originally meant for them to be one chapter, but it became pretty obvious after passing** 10k words** last chapter that I'd have to split it somewhere :/ So here you have it, the third chapter to a four-chapter arc that spans Jaune's familiarization with his abilities and Blake's introduction to a global threat that goes** much deeper** than just Grimm :) and for any nay-sayers that think no one on Remnant has to hide their powers and that there's no need for something like an illusion barrier, just let me refer you to our friend with the **giant red katana that slashes holes in space.**_

_Yep, the RWBY world **definitely** leaves things open for spatial barriers through realms populated with people wielding strange abilities - even to the eyes of an Aura user. I just hope that doesn't give too much away ;)_

_Anyway, now we're finally getting to a scene I've been **itching** to write for quite some time. Want a hint of the source of a few Easter eggs you'll be finding? At the bottom of my meager story list on my profile page is the cover art of a fic named **RWBY: Switched!**, starring a depiction of our favorite clumsy blonde inspired by another favorite fandom of mine... Can you guess which it is? Then you'll know what to expect - maybe even getting a good idea of the Semblance of a certain smart-mouthed RWBY antagonist at the same time! So until then, don't forget to leave a **Fave, Follow and Review** while staying tuned for the next chapter..._

_**And as always, Happy Reading!**_


	11. Boss Mode

**_Boss Mode_**

* * *

"Did someone say my name?"

Everyone had frozen at the sudden appearance of the voice on the other side of the door, stunned by the impeccable timing, but if anyone was the most concerned it was certainly Blake. This person hadn't triggered any warning or notification in her Gamer system; if that wasn't enough, the sense of foreboding under the superficially light-hearted question alone was certainly enough to put on her edge.

But that name... Blake recognized it, putting the name to the face even before the nonchalant teen strode into the dorm as if it were is own living area. Mercury Black, the one who'd challenged Pyrrha and forfeited after just a few moves.

However, even in her dangerously groggy state at the time, the ravenette could tell that the Haven transfer's actions in that match weren't motivated by the sheer incumbency of a finicky disposition.

"Um, _excuse_ us?" Ruby stated first with a surprisingly testy tone as she glanced pointedly at the encroachment of space the seventh teen had incurred in an all-girl dorm, to which the grey-haired visitor backed out of the room with hands raised overhead like a man held at gunpoint and a smug smirk plastered on his face.

"Of course, of course," he replied with a coolness that easily rivaled that of Neptune's while dropping his hands and crossing his arms before continuing just outside the door, "Just dropping by to express my _deepest_ gratitude for finding my favorite pin earlier... but it looks like I'm already the topic of conversation."

Blake narrowed her eyes at him, immediately distrusting his subtly fake emphasis on being sincere - which gave away the fact that it was precisely _insincere_, in her eyes - as well as his overly-familiar approach to students at a school he should supposedly know nothing about.

If her leader was reaching the same conclusion, the catgirl certainly had to give her due credit since it definitely seemed to be the case when the crimsonette quipped with slightly narrowed eyes at the visitor, "_Right_. I think I got that when I gave it to you earlier."

"Ah ah, think back real hard and you'll realize I clearly _didn't_," Mercury corrected with a raised finger and cheshire grin, but seemingly sensing the growing tension in the room, he then seamlessly changed the subject with frankly impressive finesse raising a hand to chin in exaggerated thought, "_Say_... I'll have to admit that it wasn't the _only_ reason I chose to come by this afternoon... I wanted to ask - where exactly did you find it? As you know, I'd been looking for it all _over_ the place..."

The ravenette was definitely sizing him up now just as the other five occupants of the room surely were too, but if the visitor himself noticed it then he was doing an excellent job of hiding it as he kept the same confident smile and expectant gaze set on the crimsonette.

But being her specialty to challenge a show of male bravado at the drop of a pin, it was Yang who decided to go straight to the point and simply slam the mousetrap on the mouse to see if that'd work, "Funny thing you mention that, Johnny Black-"

"_Mercury_-"

"_Whatever_," she continued airily despite his correction, content with having thrown him off-guard enough to strike with a confident smirk, "We actually found that little accessory inside an underground tunnel leading to a place called Mountain Glenn! Ever... _heard_ of it?~"

With her Observe skill, Blake noticed the slightest faltering of Mercury's countenance before he quickly corrected it with a shrug and overly bemused frown.

"Can't imagine anyone who _hasn't_. If I recall correctlyyy, it was one of Vale's biggest _failures_ in its attempt to expand its city borders back in the day..."

'Hmm,' was all the catgirl thought to herself with a slowly deepening scowl. This guy wasn't just some kid trying to play cool in front of the ladies - his expression, his words, every single _mannerism_ was _way_ too obvious... as if purposely played out to guide the conversation where he wanted it to go. Up against someone like Yang, this had now become like a game of cards where the two opposing players were engaged in a heated high-stakes betting round to see who'd tip their hand first.

"Ya know, you really don't strike me as the 'history-buff' kind of student," Yang retorted with an amused quirked brow and hands on her hips, "'Specially for a guy who's now got some pretty solid evidence placing him at an active crimescene at the time of the Vale Breach a week ago~"

Taking the teasing accusation like a champ, Mercury only seemed to raise a pensive brow as well before snapping his fingers in feigned realization, "Ah! That's _right!_ You guys were part of the response team that held the Grimm back at the pavilion that day!"

Merely glaring at him as if she were about to call him out on his out-of-place statement, Yang's rebuttal died in her mouth as he added with an innocent sigh, "Me and my team were called to the affected area as well - feel free to check the official logs, it's all there."

Letting out a short huff in frustration, Yang stayed silent for a moment as it seemed the conversation had reached an impasse... that is, until Ruby rejoined the conversation with hands on her hips and beginning much like her sister had, "Funny thing you mention _that_, considering we didn't find the pin at the mouth of the tunnel. We found it almost a mile in further, inside Mountain Glenn _itself_."

At that, Mercury's first sign of alteration that everyone could see in the room happened - a studious gaze meant to resize the crimsonette hidden under a growing grin. As it turned out, the young leader had tipped the blonde's cards for her.

"Waiiit," he began slowly, as if catching on to some well-played joke, "Don't tell me it was _your_ team that uncovered the whole threat in the first place?"

"You better believe it, buddy," Yang shot back as she moved to stand beside her sister with arms crossed challengingly, Mercury then breaking eye-contact to look to the side and scoff in amusement.

"Well how bout that. Must've been quite a ride through those tunnels having to deal with that billy-jacked bomb train and all!"

The most genuine emotion he'd shown all this time, a few of the students in RWBY's dorm cocked their heads trying to decide if the underlying emotion was wonderment or some poorly hidden form of irritation - either way, he was beginning to look less and less like a viable suspect in their previous suspicions and more like some random jerkwad transfer student out to mess with some locals. But Blake however, she wasn't confused in the least.

Mercury had just made a vital mistake.

"Now that's something _I_ find interesting," the catgirl stated flatly, paying no mind to the attention she drew from everyone else in the room as she glared at the student with mock-surprise, "The news _did_ report a bomb involved in the breach... but nowhere did anyone ever mention its delivery by _train_."

And slowly, nearly comically so, every gaze in the room drifted back to the affronted teen just outside its door, his once-confident smirk melting down into a pronounced scowl.

As the present members of the Beacon student body inched their dominant hands towards their weapons, the motions were paused as the grey-haired transfer suddenly let out a chortle that was certainly incongruous given the circumstances.

"_Hah! _You got me there!" Mercury began, amicably pointing at Blake in a mock-chiding gesture before turning a gaze on the crimsonette that only seemed to grow sharper and more ominous by the second, "But to be fair, I came here 'cuz I was onto you lot from the start... I just like to make small talk - you know, get to know the people whose brains I'm about to splatter across the walls."

"..."

Maybe it was the way he had so casually voiced his ill intentions, or the graphic nature of the threat itself, but in the second of hesitation it caused the six teens in the room, Mercury made his move.

Hitting all six students with what looked like black throwing picks in a single motion, a series of clicks were heard from what were apparently greaves on his ankles just before slamming his foot into the floorboards just inside the dorm room's threshold.

_**BOOM!**_

And just like that, RWBY's dorm was utterly destroyed, the six teens launched out the side of the building as the resulting shockwave from Mercury's blast warped the floor itself and catapulted everything inside the room through the air. Smirking at his deed as he watched his victims land in heaps a few floors below, the grey-haired teen engaged his other ankle-greave and launched himself in the air towards them with effortless flips and twists around the falling debris surrounding him.

**_PING!_**

'Oh no,' was all Blake thought as she read the following window once she landed.

**[Negative Status Effect(s) active!]**

**_Dark Aura Flesh Bud _(highest)**

"Uuugh, now _that_ was uncalled for," Yang grumbled from the floor outside the damaged dorm building as she slowly made her way to a standing position a few feet from her partner.

The catgirl, on the other hand, had managed to land on her feet in a deep crouch but could only watch as one of their bunks hurdled towards Jaune and Pyrrha's recovering forms from behind them too quickly for her to react. But before she could even warn them, the Mistrali took the words from her mouth.

"Jaune, look out!"

And brandishing her trusty shield, the redheaded champion twisted around the startled knight, squaring her shoulder behind the mighty bronze wall and slamming the metal into the falling bunk which caused it to shatter into hundreds of wooden pieces with a powerful _smash_. However, in the second that the two partners traded grateful grins, Jaune was now the one spurred into action as he saw more danger approaching the green-eyed fighter from behind.

"Pyr, look out!"

**_POW!_**

Ren, Yang, Ruby and most of all Pyrrha could only gape as Jaune mimicked the Mistrali's motion - twisting around her and squaring his shoulder - before slamming his fist into a giant slab of marble hurdling towards them which had once been a section of the dorm building's wall, shattering it into hundreds of dusty pieces.

Blake could only smirk as she stood after watching the role-reversal among team JNPR due to their leader's enhanced strength, 'Well if anything, Pyrrha really needed a reality update after Mountain Glenn anyway...'

"Jaune... were you even engaging your Aura?" Ren stated incredulously as the remaining students approached the blonde knight, the last of the debris falling harmlessly around the group as Jaune looked down at his hands in search of a reply.

"Umm..."

"Oh _joy_, everyone's still alive!"

Scowls now adorning their faces, the six students turned to see Mercury approaching the group with hands in pockets and ever-present smirk before Ruby sprung into action reaching for Crescent Rose and disappearing in a flurry of rose petals.

"Why you-!"

_ffft-PAHT!_

Yet in the blink of an eye, she found herself on her back a few feet from the visitor groaning in pain, the smug teen himself with his arm straight out having performed a flawless clothes-line on the crimsonette.

"I gotta admit, that was pretty _fast_... I mean, I still saw it coming from a mile away, but still... not bad!"

Her benevolent persona finally reaching its limit at the sight of her downed friend, Pyrrha engaged Miló with a low growl before dashing at the cocky antagonist. Already upon him with shield and spear, the champion thrust and slashed with her formidable combos... only to realize in frustration that none of her attacks were connecting with the teen who dodged them all with both hands behind his back.

"What, The Invincible Girl can't get her internal magnets to work if she can't touch me?" Mercury taunted with a smirk, the Mistrali's eyes widening for a split-second before refocusing on him with intensified aggression in an attempt to activate her Semblance, "I take that as a _yes_... but too bad you're only gonna hold out for a few more seconds."

Having already begun to advance on the battling duo, the four remaining students came to a halt when they heard the finality in his voice. And sure enough, to their greatest chagrin, the mighty contender suddenly seized up as if being electrocuted by some unknown force before falling on the ground and groaning in pain much like Ruby was still doing.

Quickly glancing between the two fighters, Yang shot her red-eyed gaze at the teen as she yelled, "What did you _do_ to them!?"

"Why don't you c'mere and find out, doll face?" the grey-haired merc taunted as he held out a hand at her as a beckoning to fight, an invitation she didn't waste a second to accept along with Ren.

And once more, Mercury found himself engaged in combat but now with a fighter at each side. However, now focusing on blocking Ren's flowing strikes, he only seemed concerned with diverting the blonde bomber's attacks with one arm in her growing frustration.

"Yang Xiao Long," the merc droned as he ducked under a flaming right hook while spinning to the side on a leg to dodge an aura-enhanced kick from the jade fighter, "the first Beacon student with a Berserker-class Semblance in nearly two generations... meh, not really tough to handle once you figure it out."

At that, Jaune and Blake, who had gone to check on Pyrrha and Ruby respectively, traded an unsure glance as the buxom boxer herself came to a harrowing realization. Mercury was ensuring that not a single hit landed on her that could activate her semblance, choosing to whittle away at Ren's otherwise solid defense with well-placed greave-kicks whenever he could push Yang back with feints. Tumbling around another high feint, Yang spun around the merc and placed herself beside Ren to get his attention.

"Yang, maybe not the most strategic formation," the stoic eked out between labored breaths to maintain correct breathing as he finally switched to StormFlower to push the visitor back with a hail of bullets.

"I know!" she shouted in her heated reply as she took out Ember Celica's projectile function and fired several whistling rounds at their opponent as well, "And I know this is gonna sound weird, but I need you to hit me! Like, _really_ hard!"

Sparing an incredulous sideways glance at the determined blonde despite his usual calm demeanor, the dual-wielder could only retort, "_W-What!?_"

"_I said **hit** me!_"

Sighing out a brief silent prayer for forgiveness, Ren breathed in once more before promptly sending her skidding back several feet with a pink Semblance-powered aura pulse sent out from his fist to her torso. Finally recovering as his firearms ran out of ammo and Mercury began closing the space between them, she flashed him a quick thumbs up before racing to meet their opponent head on with renewed fire in her form, "_Thanks!_"

However, she never even made it halfway.

Suddenly seizing up, hands going up to her throat as the fire around her was snuffed out of existence, she fell in writhing pain much like the two fighters before her. As Mercury reached her laid out form, her body feeling a terrible burning sensation choking her from within as she groaned in pain, she caught a glance of the jade fighter behind her only to see that he wasn't faring any better.

"Wow, you guys are kinda dumb, you know that?" Mercury began airily as he stood with self-satisfied triumph over the downed blonde, "How your team even beat out Torchwick is _honestly_ beyond me..."

"Jaune, we need to do something, _now_," Blake hissed at the blonde as they each pulled the first two downed students around the side of a boulder away from the fight, the latter returning a nod before they emerged from behind the boulder only to feel their stomachs sink at the sight.

"_Seriously_ guys! With six of you, I actually thought this might be difficult!" Mercury now called out across the area outside the building with their other two teammates down for the count, "But I guess it's fair, considering that none of you had ever figured out that my Semblance lets me short out your Auras with the flesh bud I've implanted in each of your bodies! It's _literally_ like 'Mercury' poisoning, get it!?"

"..."

"Ack, you guys are no fun."

Jaune growled in reply, his anger quickly rising as he looked over his injured friends and the surrounding destruction before directing himself to the bewildered ravenette in a hurried aside, "Hasn't anyone seen what's _happening_ yet? Why aren't we getting any help!?"

At that, Blake's eyes widened in realization, mentally facepalming for not having noticed the eerily silent ambience and deserted environment sooner as she quickly looked around, "Of course... We're in another illusion barrier!"

"Oh?" Mercury quipped with earnest surprise, stepping over Yang's agonized form as he began leisurely approaching his last two opponents, "I gotta say, didn't expect anyone here to know about my little party trick. Comes with the heritage, you know."

Not bothering to deign his self-praise with a response, Blake merely whispered askance to the slightly confused Jaune who unsheathed his weapon beside her as they slowly walked toward the merc, "Buy me some time, I'm in range to observe him."

With only a quiet grunt in acknowledgment, the knight scowled at the grey-haired transfer before shouting, "_What are you talking about!?_"

Mercury paused, raising a hand to his chin in thought and finally nodding to himself as if reaching a decision before replying, "Ah well, you're dead anyways. Like I said, it's something I'm born with - an ability to make a neat little battle stage out of the world around us without having to worry about any of those mean old Professors you got crawling all over the place coming in and crashing the party - and by sticking you lot with the flesh buds my semblance creates, I can bring you all in here with me. To _die_, of course. After rubbing your loss in your faces."

By the time he finished his monologue, Blake had already uttered her skill command.

* * *

**Mercury Black LV39  
****Rank: _B (Att: B | Def: C | Sem: S)  
_****HP: 29700 MP: 1500**

**A powerful mercenary contracted by the Red Queen herself.**

**Though seemingly care-free and joval, displays a sense of seriousness and levelheadedness in combat. Is very observant, making full use of his strategic mind when facing any number of opponents with a very acrobatic and agile fighting style that relies on quickly overpowering his opponent using complex kicks that imply a near-mastery of martial arts.**

**Wields a set of greaves that have a firing mechanism built into them. Can also form illusion barriers at will to neutralize opponents freely thanks to the natural power supplied to him by his birth realm. Can use Semblance to implant energy-siphoning flesh buds in his victims, causing Grimm to disintegrate on contact and Humans/Faunus to experience symptoms of severe Aura depletion once they activate their Semblances. Sensitive to Mana-saturated metal.**

**Has no qualms about killing.**

* * *

"I _really_ hope you've figured out a way to take him down," Jaune muttered as the pair had already halved the space between them and Mercury, to which Blake replied in kind.

"It won't be easy... his stats show up as if he were some sort of boss. Be wary of his kicks since they're like Yang's gauntlet punches but on his ankles, and you'll only get one shot to defeat him - hit him with Crocea Mors at full energy."

"Only one shot?"

"Yes," the ravenette replied as she readied herself to equip Gambol Shroud, "Don't use your aura until you have a clean target - he's embedded us all with flesh buds created by his semblance, pieces of his materialized aura which will cause our auras to atrophy once we... activate our..."

Suddenly realizing what she was saying, and what she had just done, Blake turned to give an increasingly concerned Jaune a wide-eyed panicked glance before feeling the effects take over her like a flaming vice.

**_PING!_**

**[Negative Status Effect(s) active!]**

**_MP Drain_ (high)  
****_Stunned_ (intermediate)**

"Blake? ..._Blake!_"

The knight caught the catgirl as she fell at his side, setting the writing girl down against the side of another large piece of debris as she managed a glimpse at herself and caught sight of a black pea-sized entry wound on her midriff from which a dark substance now pulsed and spread out underneath her skin in a small vein-like network.

"Huh, she didn't even take a single swing at me before keeling over. Kinduva buzzkill if you ask me - I was looking forward to taking her out."

Gritting his teeth at the irreverent remark from the student who had now closed the space between them to only a few dozen feet, Jaune clenched his fist around the hilt of Crocea Mors as he gently wiped a lock of hair that had fallen in front of Blake's face back behind her ear as softly as he could with his other hand.

"I don't know why you're doing this," Jaune began as he stood up slowly to face the aggressor, his ruffled blonde hair falling in front of his face and obscuring his eyes as the knight kept his gaze low to control himself, "I don't even know _how_ you're doing this... but you're going to regret what you've done here."

"Am I?" Mercury replied with an easy grin before lifting his fists at the blonde in a mock-boxing stance, "Heh, then let's see what you got. Come at me, bro!"

Huffing once in anger, Jaune leapt at Mercury while unsheathing his sword in a single motion with a battle cry, swinging down the blade with all his weight... and missing entirely as the smug contender merely sidestepped out of Crocea Mors' range.

"You kidding, right? You think a sword will help you in close combat?" Mercury quipped flatly as he dodged and ducked under a few more swings of the blade before deadpanning at the knight when the blonde swung wide and regripped his sword, panting heavily as he now glared at the merc with malicious intent, "Oh wait. Don't tell me you actually have one of those tacky _gun-blades_... _jeez_ those stupid things are overused these days! Even my _partner's_ got 'em! People, how 'bout some _originality!_"

"_YAH!_"

But with unexpected speed, Jaune swung his sword upward at the grey-haired fighter, nearly catching him off-guard and forcing him to tumble backwards to escape strike range. Taking advantage of the second respite, the knight expanded his sheath and charged the miffed teen.

"Oho, now you've got a shield, _oh dear~_" he continued taunting as he glared at the blonde approaching him, "You know, the part where you thought you'd beat me was kinda funny at first, but now it's getting annoying."

With a grunt of pain from her location, Blake was barely able to turn her head from her current position to see the mercenary engage Jaune with far more ferocity, focusing a barrage of kicks on his shield while dodging enraged slashes before using his upturned shield like a small platform to land a spinning kick that knocked his sword right out of his hand and into a nearby marble boulder.

Followed by a hard kick to disarm his shield before landing a final roundhouse kick to the head that put Jaune to the floor.

'Must... _do_ something,' the ravenette begged her unresponsive body as she slightly lurched sideways in another spasm of pure pain, letting her hand drop on her thigh as she managed to eke out, "S-Sta...tus... Win...dow."

* * *

**Nam -&amp; 2ake Bel24$ -onna  
****9la23&amp; sk he 98er  
****Le:$: Lv2&amp;-**

**...**

**]P: 873/1K50  
****M+: 97/85L**

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**ST~: - \€}*]**_**4 +**_

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**INT:}*#*|€_ 2 +**

**WkS: /: j7 +**

**LU )38 kns**

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**Poi\£{}: 42  
****Mon#%: 6,5]+|300 ¥**

* * *

'There's not enough time... And using just one Vecchian Aura Recovery would take most of my remaining mana, meaning that I'd _still_ be unable to help...'

Her mind racing between possible options as her entire field of vision seemed to pulse red at the edges, Blake noticed how what looked like her MP bar kept ticking lower and lower with every passing second before slowly turning up in worry to see what had become of the knight.

Circling him with a wide malicious grin like a shark around a wounded seal, Mercury came in to kick Jaune on the side which rolled him over on his back, "Hey man, still alive?"

But catching the visitor off-guard, Jaune's eyes snapped open, the knight grabbing hold of both ankles so hard that it shorted out his greaves before flipping the merc on his back with an angered yell. Flipping himself up to a standing position with a well-executed pop-up, Jaune turned to swing a fist downward at Mercury who barely managed to dodge the blow that created a small crater in the floor underneath.

Snapping his head up to glare at the grey-haired student, the knight replied, "It's gonna take way more than _that_ to kill me... especially with what you've done to my friends."

Mercury merely stared at Jaune for a moment as he straightened up before letting out a small shrug.

"Okay."

And just like that, the grey-haired fighter closed the space between them in an instant with a high kick aimed at his head... only to have his leg painfully countered by a block from Jaune's forearm before the knight sent him back reeling towards a sizable heap of debris several yards away with an unexpectedly powerful blow to the abdomen.

_CRASH!_

Hitting the pile of wood and stone so hard that it granted a barely-conscious Ruby and Pyrrha, who were now nursing noticeable black vein-like patches on their hand and upper arm respectively, a full view of the fight going on in front of them, Mercury slowly made his way back to a standing position, cradling his side before his dark-grey aura patched up the rest of the damage.

"Jaune Arc," he now stated as if having discovered new-found respect for the name, "Been a looong time since someone put me to the ground in a duel, much less _twice_. And here I'd heard rumors that you were just some small fry with big dreams! Ah well, I guess all that means is that I've finally found someone worth killing on this side of Remnant."

"Not a chance!"

And just like that, Jaune charged in to resume his onslaught, swinging and slamming wherever he could to get at the merc. Ruby and Pyrrha watched in growing stupefaction despite their weakened states how Jaune managed to destroy massive piles of rubble even when he missed his mark, entire sections of what used to be dorm walls exploding and wood splinters flying everywhere in his enraged emotion.

But Blake noticed those massive blows getting progressively weaker, her pained brows softening in realization as she figured out that Mercury had merely taken the defensive and let himself get cornered against one of the few remaining boulders while dodging every blow, waiting for Jaune to tire himself out.

And finally releasing a single kick to redirect a flailing left hook, the merc grinned as he discerned that his chance had come. Skillfully dodging a straight jab meant for his head, Mercury nimbly performed a short wall jump and hooked both legs around Jaune's neck, performing a perfect headscissor takedown and launching the knight head-first into the ground several feet away.

Struggling to stand, Jaune barely got on both feet before Mercury recovered and was on him again, fierce kick after spinning kick landing on all sides of the knight as if he were a punching bag due to the relentless speed before the merc jumped and launched the blonde all the way by Pyrrha and Ruby with a powerful drop kick that was unexpectedly augmented by a powerful **_bang_**.

"Hah, look at that!" Mercury proudly exclaimed as he stood and looked down to check his greaves, "I guess they were just jammed, that's all!"

Pyrrha felt a single tear falling at the sight of her partner slowly rolling onto all fours between the two girls and coughing blood on the floor as she did her best to fight through the pain to speak, "J-Jaune..."

He could only heave out two words before collapsing as Mercury briskly walked over, "I'm, sorry..."

"Hm, I guess you _did_ turn out to be tougher to take out than I thought," the merc mused, crossing his arms in thought over the three teens before snapping his fingers with an idea, "Got it! Tell you what, you really did surprise me in the end, Arc... so since I'm in a good mood today, I'll go ahead and save you for last!"

Turning his his head between the two immobilized girls beside the knight, his eyes settled first on the Mistrali with disapproval, "Mm, nah. You ended up being too easy to take down. For a champion and all, you really get too reckless when emotions are involved... meh, killing you first would be a waste."

Taking a few steps around the downed knight, he then gazed at the teary-eyed crimsonette who simply coughed haggardly since she was currently incapable of unleashing the furious deluge of screams she wanted so badly to lash him with, "_You_, however... I'd normally probably start with you, but today I'll have to make an exception and save you for second. I just recalled the surprising heritage of a certain teammate of yours which makes her _that_ much more interesting..."

And beginning to make his way over to the small clearing from the debris, Mercury shot a now increasingly angered Blake a fake warm smile as even Yang and Ren on another side of the small clearing managed to catch a glimpse of the interaction.

"Y'know... Belladonna, isn't it? Y'know, there really aren't Faunus where I come from," he began softly, as if telling her a deep secret amongst friends which only managed to make her scowl deeper at his nonchalance, "No idea why, but it's just the way it is. And I gotta admit... I never really cared for them. You know, the ears? The claws?"

He made small pantomimes of each characteristic as he listed them before shaking his head at her, "Nah, never really did it for me. But _boy_, the first time I wasted one of you people? Oh man, that was gold - who was it... some ex-Fang puma Faunus with his own book stop? Tukson's Book Trade or something - I dunno, I think it was the way he went _splat_... Wait, you know him? You look like you did~"

Tears welling in her own eyes, Blake glared daggers at the merc and also did her best to cough out a response despite the searing pain in her body, a small smirk growing on his lips as he narrowed his eyes in realization.

"Hm, I'd say you two might've known each other _very_ well... business contacts, maybe?" he continued with a malicious grin before standing over her and re-engaging his ankle-greave above her head, "Well if it's any consolation, you're both going to be reunited very, _very_ soo-"

_BONNNNNG!_

"-AGH!"

His hand quickly going to his head after the large shield ricocheted right off of it, Mercury felt the blood trickling until the aura he'd left inactive reactivated to close the wound.

"I already told you, twinkle toes. You're not gonna touch a single one of my friends. Especially _her_."

The merc scowled as he leveled a steely glare at the knight who half-stood and half-supported himself on some stray debris across the clearing, his eyes rekindled with ill-intent, "You should've stayed down, Arc... _nobody_ calls me Twinkle Toes and gets away with it!"

**_PING!_**

**[You've detected a strong bloodlust.]**

'Jaune, _don't!_' Blake mentally shouted through her haze of pain as she saw the merc make good on his threat, sprinting across the clearing before the knight could put up a decent block and scissor kicking him into one of her team's other bunks lying near the clearing.

_CRASH!_

But crawling out of what now looked like a pile of mulch with a mattress on top, Jaune stumbled to a decent enough position, bruised and battered, before scoffing at the irate mercenary. _Scoffing!_

Blake grit her teeth against the pain of trying to face the brawl, knowing full well that if she were even capable of observing the blue-eyed blonde at the moment that he'd have a sizable chunk of his HP missing.

'Why would he do this? Doesn't he know that facing an enemy in his current state is _suicide?_'

She blinked hard to blot out the tears she didn't even realize were coming when he managed to block all but the last of Mercury's flurry of attacks, the final kick at Jaune's knee bending the limb out at an unsightly angle before the merc followed through with a reverse kick with the opposite leg that sent the knight tumbling into a nearby block of marble.

But seeing the block of stone Jaune had been smashed into, Blake was surprised when Jaune weakly dropped on all fours and unexpectedly met her gaze with his own, a semblance of determination under his injured features... but she knew the meaning of his silent admission the moment she saw it.

He had a plan.

Despite harrowing odds, despite his torn body, Jaune was struggling to win for those he cared about. He had accepted the pain, embraced it, for the most worthy of causes, and he had channelled it into a final strategy to save them all. The catgirl knew this... instead of using his Aura to heal himself and escape alone, he was saving his energy for a shot at the merc to annul the crippling he'd inflicted on everyone. So the ravenette would stop at nothing to help him do just that.

Willing herself to utter the _Status Window_ command a second time, Blake watched the double-digit MP count drop into single digits as Mercury reloaded his greaves and began walking towards the knight...

**_10..._**

**_9..._**

**_8..._**

'Wait, that's it!' she realized, trying with all her strength now to struggle against the status effect on her and glance down at her hand laid out over her thigh to turn it upward.

"Ssspin-ning..." she eked out, the sizzling atrophy of her natural energy tugging at her jaw and hand with the effort.

"Ma-na..."

_shuuuuuuuuu_...

**_7..._**

"I guess it's lights out, Arc," Mercury finally declared over the downed knight as he raised his steel-tipped boot over his head. However, he raised a brow when he suddenly heard a _chuckle_ escape the blonde leader's lips, "_What_, wanna go out laughing or something?"

"Not quite."

"AR-ROW!"

_**sssssssshhhhHAK!**_

Blake's final word preceding a sudden flash of light, Mercury could only cry out in pain as the bolt of mana passed right through his calf, "_GAAAGH!_"

No sooner did the light pierce the merc's limb when Jaune hopped up to get his good leg underneath him before reaching back to pull his sword from the stone behind him and regrip it to thrust forward.

"YAHHH!"

_Shing-SQUISSSH!_

Five weakened pairs of eyes watching the pair near the center of the clearing in utter stupefaction, Mercury slowly let his gaze drift downwards with hitched, labored breaths until resting his sights on the sword that had passed right through his natural aura barrier and straight into his abdomen.

"I could kill you _right now_," Jaune began slowly, blood running down his face and matting his hair as he glared at the grey-haired antagonist with an unexpectedly intimidating gaze, "But that's not why we're here. I may want to be a Hunter, but as an _Arc_, I'm not just here to rid Remnant of darkness... I'm here to _cleanse_ it of those who only want to stop the light."

"You... were supposed... to be a weakling!" Mercury grunted against the blade through his body before Jaune merely cracked a small smile.

"Well I guess that just makes me Most Improved then, doesn't it," Jaune remarked before lighting himself and his sword in a golden-white glow...

"_HAMON PULSAVERIT!_"

**_FFFWHOOOOOSH_**

A blinding flash taking over the entire area, Ruby was the first to feel the searing pain dissipate from its source in her hand before jumping up and immediately racing towards the knight.

"Bwah- OOF!"

The blonde leader in question nearly fell back as the his hooded peer nearly tackled him in a grateful embrace, "Jaune! Thankyouthankyouthankyou! I can't believe you did that for us!"

And loosening her vice-like grip on him to look down at his injury, her face paled at the sight, "Y-Your _leg!_"

"It needs to be reset in order for your Aura to heal it more quickly, Jaune," Pyrrha now added softly as she walked towards the pair, favoring her upper arm before glancing pointedly at the slightly mangled limb to which Jaune simply faced the crimsonette.

"Um, Ruby. I appreciate you worrying about me and all... but I think you're gonna end up breaking my arm too if you keep squeezing it like that."

Chuckling nervously, the young leader in question disengaged her protective and strangely Yang-like hold on his arm with a blush as she scratched the back of her head, "Oh, uh... yeah. Thanks though, for saving us and all. That was really cool!"

He cracked a goofy grin at her, glad to get cool points in anyone's book really, before turning his attention to his partner with a warm smile and lamely offering up his leg, "Your call, I just hope it doesn't-"

_crack_

"..._huuuuurt_," Jaune finished between clenched teeth as Pyrrha quickly made the readjustment with a dull pop before he could back out of the obviously painful idea.

"There, all better," the Mistrali began, grinning warmly with pride at her partner as his white aura quickly got to work on the rest. But she knew very well that it wasn't just _pride_ welling up within her... and now was as good a chance as any to drop another hint about what she felt about him, so she steeled her resolve and called his attention, "Jaune, I-"

"He's still breathing."

The three teens quickly turned to face the fourth, his magenta lock of hair falling in front of his face as he knelt over the laid out form of the wounded grey-haired assassin before Yang walked up to the group cracking her knuckles, "Oho, I can take care of that _real_ quick-"

"No!" Jaune shouted, hand held out at the group which caused them to stop and look at him, even Yang, "No. He will not die, not like this. And we have way too many unanswered questions left to ask to waste a perfect chance like this."

"Alright then, let's pick him up," Ruby stated dryly as she and Ren noticed Mercury regaining consciousness, to which the stoic lifted the teen up to kneel on both knees towards the group as he fastened pink Aura-cuffs onto his wrists from behind.

"You can do that kind of thing with Aura?" Yang asked idly from beside Ren, a brow raised in curiosity.

"With enough training, yes," he began simply, his gaze fixed on the ground before sighing, "If Nora were here, she'd probably go into a very fantastical explanation of the matter... being that it isn't the case, I suppose I'll just leave it at that. Frankly, I'm glad she didn't get caught up in this..."

Staring at the silent jade fighter as he stood, ensuring to keep a hold on Mercury's restraints from behind, the remaining students kept silent as the unusual degree of emotion towards the bubbly hammer maiden from the usually stoic student lingered between them all. Ren truly did care for her... and his tone only conveyed how close they'd all come to losing everything.

The moment passed, and Jaune lightly limped over to stand in front of Mercury before breaking the silence.

"Who are you working with? And what were you aiming to gain by helping the White Fang at Mountain Glenn?"

The teen scoffed before spitting som blood to the side, "Helping _those_ animals? Looks like you've got it all twisted, buddy. Why don't you ask Torchwick?"

Ignoring the fake student, Pyrrha merely came up behind Jaune to quickly whisper, "He's still bleeding. His aura should've healed him by now..."

"I know," the knight whispered in reply without breaking eye contact with Mercury before directing himself to the merc at an audible volume once more with crossed arms, "Look. We don't have time to get the runaround, but if we get to ask him someday, trust me... we will. But you couldn't have infiltrated Beacon so easily, even with the likes of Roman and the Fang at your back. Who else were you working with?"

"Hah, I ain't tellin' you guys _nuthin_," the mercenary replied with a rueful scowl.

"Suit yourself," Jaune continued casually before continuing, "But you know, _my _little party trick has a neat little side effect you don't know about. It's funny... the more I use my Semblance, the more I seem to be learning from it..."

The four teens standing watched the blonde leader with increasingly quizzical expressions before he finally dropped the bomb on the mercenary, "That last little line I pulled on you? _It purged your Aura, Mercury. _It could be relocked... it could've been eliminated all-together for all I care... but all I know for sure is that if you ever want to use it again, you're gonna have to give us some answers."

Ren and Pyrrha merely smirked at their leader who they no longer doubted was becoming a Hunter in spirit as well as body; Ruby and Yang were now gaping at the intricacy of the plan the blonde had whisked into existence while getting his butt handed to him by the grey-haired teen.

Mercury, however... wasn't so pleased. Yet despite the rekindled fire in the back of his eyes, the merc replied slowly with a very mixed expression, "You know what? ...Alright, I'll bite. But I won't tell you, I'll tell your buddy here."

Nodding at Ren, Jaune gave the silent command to proceed... at least, he would've said so out loud had it not been for the slew of windows that came through the party notification system in front of him.

**_PING PING PING!_**

**[Negative Status Effect(s) dispelled!]**

**[Field Boss defeated!]**

**[You have gained 650000 XP.]**

**_PING PING PING PING PING!_**

**[_The Knight's _level has risen by 1.]**

**[_The Knight's _level has risen by 1.]**

**[_The Knight's _level has risen by 1.]**

**[_The Knight's _level has risen by 1.]**

**[_The Knight's _level has risen by 1.]**

**_DING!_**

**[For leveling up five times at once, _Boss Mode_ achievement has been unlocked!]**

**[Boss Mode]**

**-Ultimate protagonist flag  
****-Increased attack priority within parties  
****-Brag to your friends about it!**

'Huh, I guess even Blake's Gamer system isn't immune to the occasional stroke of fluff every now and then,' the knight thought to himself as the windows began closing out, 'At least it mean's Blake's abilities are still working...'

"That's right, dude," Mercury continued, bringing the knight back into the moment as Ren inched towards him, "Just another step closer so I don't gotta twist my neck around like this... _perfect_-"

_TWAK!_

And just like that, Mercury sprung to his feet, knocking the jade fighter back with a disorienting headbutt to his chin before anyone else could react.

But before he could turn to run away, the merc suddenly froze, everyone hearing a dull _crunch_ from behind him before he fell back on his knees to reveal the catgirl standing behind him with a hand's fingertips bunched together at waist level like a solid wedge. Running to pick up her teammate whose aura was currently healing a broken nose, Pyrrha looked up at an emotionless Blake in disbelief as Yang poked Mercury repeatedly, the merc now unable to do anything but let out the occasionally haggard breath and turn his eyes as far as they could to try and see who had snuck up on him from behind.

"Blake... how'd you do that?" the blonde brawler now asked in a concerned tone after nodding at her younger sister to confirm that Mercury had been effectively paralyzed.

"Nerve cluster between the kidneys right next to the spine," the ravenette began matter-of-factly before putting her hand down, "One of the few weaknesses common between all humans and Faunus. Sure, someone with an aura can heal it quickly enough to ward off any lasting damage, but for someone _without_ an active aura..."

The students quickly caught on to the rest as the catgirl raised an indicative brow at the merc.

"You mean he might stay like this forever?" Ruby now asked incredulously, "He can't even talk..."

Casting only a sideways glance at the paralyzed teen, Blake figured that it had probably been better that way in the end. Knowing about her Faunus heritage was one thing... but coming very close to figuring out her previous affiliation with a terrorist organization was something else entirely.

But judging by the way the teens looked at her, it was almost as if she had killed him right then and there. Yet she hadn't thought twice about her action when she had gotten up to her feet and halted Mercury's escape, even if it meant crippling him for life... Oum knew how many times she had used that nerve attack before. But that was in another time, in another life, surely her ease in doing this wasn't spurred by the calculating mentality of a young woman who'd once nearly come to think of collateral damage as a means to an end.

But if _Gamer's Mind_ was beginning to make it this easy to make that kind of decision...

'Would it mean that something like killing might come as natural to me someday too?'

"Of course not," Jaune now cut into the conversation, and the catgirl's musing as well, "She can still heal him with one of her Semblance's skills. I'm sure that's what she was planning after keeping him from escaping... right Blake?"

Staring blankly at the knight for a moment as if processing the words, the ravenette nodded despite the fact that healing him had never crossed her mind, "Right... but then again, we don't need him to talk. We already have a good idea of who he's working with... the other two Haven students he associates with. Though I think it's safe to say they're likely not students, either. Besides, we can't afford him leaving the illusion barrier."

"Illusion what?" the crimsonette echoed meekly.

"Yeah, he mentioned something like that, but didn't bring it up until after _you_ identified it yourself," Jaune added as the remaining students refocused on the amber-eyed subject of his statement.

Blake sighed before organizing her thoughts enough to reply, "It's a skill I became aware of until only quite recently. To put it simply, it's the ability to create a sort of spatial marble that encloses a certain area in its own bubble of reality where anything you do can't affect the real world."

"Like some sort of reality marble?" Yang asked quizzically, to which the catgirl nodded.

"Precisely. Apparently there are several who can use that ability that I know of."

"Alright then," Ruby stated, satisfied with the definition, "I think we'll just have to go out to practice hunting with you more to figure out how that works! I'd ask why anyone would need that kind of ability, but I'm pretty sure I can see _why_ by just looking around this place right now..."

Pyrrha did so, surveying the considerable amount of destruction surrounding the group and fully agreeing with the crimsonette before adding, "Yes, definitely a plus for a covert operation. Though I'm sure this sort of ability must have its limits."

"I'm sure it does," Ren now remarked before turning his attention to the catgirl, "But I think the question we should be asking is - How do we get out?"

The students turned again to glance at Blake as she nodded in agreement and replied, looking up and pursing her lips to the side as if recalling a previous event, "Well if I'm not mistaken, these spatial constructs collapse soon after their creator vacates it, and any others who've entered can exit by walking out of its boundaries. I say we start walking until we breach its perimeter."

"What about _him?_" Yang noted, pointing her chin in a small gesture at the paralyzed merc.

"I say leave him," Blake continued flatly, surprising a few in the group by her candidness, "That way there's no chance he can escape. We can always come back once we've apprehended his accomplices."

The Mistrali seemed like she was about to interject, but was surprised when her motion forward to get the catgirl's attention was stopped by an outstretched hand from the knight.

"Alright. We can't afford to let him escape and warn anyone else of our plan... and this illusion barrier is likely the best place we can leave him in the meantime. Blake, can you find a way back into these things after we've left?"

A shrug from the ravenette, prompting a nonplussed deadpan from the blue-eyed blond.

"_Yes_... I've done it before."

Jaune merely raised a brow in question before shaking his head, "Fine. Ruby? Mind finding us an exit point?"

Turning to face her fellow team leader, the crimsonette cracked a wide smile and thumbs up before disappearing in a flurry of rose petals.

_ffft!_

The students watched the red streak darting to and fro around the area surrounding them, and just when it seemed their eyes, heads and necks couldn't handle the constant jerking movements to keep up with her anymore, everyone let out a small simultaneous gasp as she suddenly disappeared near the school fountain.

"Looks like that's our exit point," Jaune stated grimly, to which his famed partner nodded in reply.

"Lead the way."

And leaving the paralyzed merc behind after setting him against one of the few remaining intact sections of RWBY's dorm walls, the one with Yang's _Achieve Men_ poster now hanging a few inches over his head, the five remaining teens walked towards the fountain...

...until like having walked out of a soundproof room, they reemerged into the calmer hum of the real Beacon gardens.

To see the young redhead currently being scolded by her teammate.

"Do you have _any_ idea how long I've been trying to reach you all!? _Nearly three minutes!_ People can _die_ in the span of three minutes, Ruby! _DIE! _How many _times_ to I have to remind you that-"

"*_gaaaaasp!_* RENNY BEAR!"

Their moment of silent stupefaction shattered as the stoic among them was promptly talked by a VERY worried-but-now-happily-bubbly-again Nora, the remaining four students couldn't help letting out a small string of chuckles, Blake and Pyrrha each having to put a hand up to their mouth to mask their mirth while Yang and Jaune threw any semblance of politeness to the wind in their moment of relief.

Everything around them was still as it always was.

Despite her previous conflicting thoughts about her lack of internal conflict when it came to crippling someone, even Blake had to admit that this sense of normalcy was very welcome. Letting out a small sigh in satisfaction that they'd all made it out alright, her attention was brought to her side when she was nudged by a certain knight as the remainder of the group tried prying the hammer maiden off her partner.

That... was definitely interesting."

"I know," the ravenette mumbled shortly, her gaze softened by the concern underlying his stern expression, "And I'm sorry I couldn't tell you about what happened sooner."

The knight merely reached out to rest is hand on her arm, smiling warmly at her before looking up at her newly-exposed feline traits, "Don't be. We all made it out alright, and besides, you and I had more pressing things to talk about at the time..."

It made her feel silly inside, but Blake blushed as his gaze lingered on her cat ears, letting her head drop a bit - and unwittingly giving him a better view of them as she did - before asking, "Do they... look alright? I mean, it's been a while since I've gone out in public like this. On purpose, at least."

Grinning at the inexplicably endearing young woman in front of him, Jaune couldn't help feeling something strange at the question. It... it wasn't like the feeling of acknowledgment he'd get when his sisters would ask him how they looked, of the feeling of satisfaction from just having the right answer for someone when they needed it. No, it was a matter of opinion... and he'd never heard Blake ask for anyone else's opinion, well, _ever_.

Needless to say, it sent the tiniest flicker of warmth through him, though he wasn't quite sure why he reacted that way.

But as soon as he opened his mouth, ready to deliver an answer which would surely beat out any lame pick-up line or half thought-out compliment he'd ever given anyone else, his scroll rang.

"Well, this train of events is certainly becoming much more common than I'd ever expected..."

Blake and Jaune turned their heads at Pyrrha's unusual remark to see the Mistrali looking over Ruby's shoulder along with their remaining group as well, Yang's face being the first to light up at her golden opportunity.

"I know, right? We're seriously getting _no brak_-"

"Yang! Don't even!" Ruby shot back before she could finish, a single finger up in the air to stop the nefarious blonde as she pouted in annoyance.

"Ah well, it's a repeat pun anyway..."

Ren, however, merely furrowed his brows at the small screen in thought before stating, "This has to be ranked for third-year teams. Maybe even fourth-years."

"But it's got our names on it, so that means it's ours!~" Nora countered gleefully, pointing emphatically at the spot in question on Ruby's scroll.

"Yes, but a research facility in the badlands?" Pyrrha mused aloud, face set in a pensive expression, "That hardly seems efficient."

By her side, Weiss only seemed to glare at the screen before finally adding, "And _what _on Remnant is the IMF!?"

At that, Jaune and Blake traded blank stares before the knight pulled out his scroll to read the contents of the most recent message. It only took a few seconds before the knight turned to face the silent ravenette standing shoulder to shoulder with him reading the message as well.

"I think we might've found our next targets."

_**FROM:** Beacon Admin_

_**TO:** Ruby Rose (RWBY); Jaune Arc (JNPR)_

_**SUBJECT:** Briefing_

_Greetings._

_It has come to our attention that a small research facility located outside Fall Forest in the badlands between Vale and Vacuo has been compromised. Early this afternoon at 1300 hours, several emergency beacons were triggered and Beacon notified accordingly to pick out an initiative team, henceforth codenamed IMF, to investigate the incident._

_Your teams have been preliminarily selected due to your familiarity with this increasingly common anomaly and its relation to the Breach event._

_Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to arrive by Bullhead and investigate the facility for any indicators as to the identity of the culprits. You will also be tasked with the recovery and protection of any exposed research and with the rescue of any remaining scientists at the complex. Two more teams will be assigned to accompany you as well for faster execution and safety in numbers._

_The facility is codenamed "Lambent."_

Jaune's successive scroll tap to navigate to the confirmation screen was practically synchronized with Blake's following notification.

**_PING!_**

**[Quest Alert]**

**Details outlined in Jaune's scroll above.**

**Completion award: Exp 5000000.  
****One step closer to discovering the identity of _The Red Queen._  
**

**Completion failure: Mission failure on permanent record.  
****Likely death.**

**_Accept?_ YES - NO**

_...tap_

* * *

**A/N: **_So there. We now expand the plot to **new characters, new bosses, and new horizons!** __Of course, there will be plenty of Knightshade development on the way. And by development, I mean a VERY bumpy road ;) _

_In other news, **TGG** is now **#20** in RWBY's **all-time **most followed list... I'm pretty sure I smacked myself once I saw that. Three months, ten chapters, and here we are. Just saying, this story wouldn't be here if it wasn't for **you** guys! ^.^_

_Now that that's been said, I'd like to bring up a few things about reviews in general. I've gotten to know about the **amazing diversity of languages** here in FFNet and I know that English may not be the first language of many of you dear readers. But even then, I'd still love to hear from you! I mentioned in previous chapters that I spoke six languages, and they are: **English (duh), Spanish, French, Korean, Portuguese and Italian.** So please feel free to leave a review in the language most **comfortable** to you, and I'll be sure to get back to you in your native language if I can :D Your language not on that list? That's okay! You can stick with either English or your own language, but it has come to my attention that a few people are more comfortable leaving a review in their native language and I'd love for everyone to have that liberty too!_

_And finally, I'm loving the pointers I've been getting from you guys, either pointing out typos or fixing small plot inconsistencies. But for the record, Jaune **knew** Blake was a Faunus since the beginning of Season 2 in the show. In **TGG**, he's just tip-toeing around the subject before they finally confront it together. Just sayin. I'm looking at you, **VFR6** ;) But if you have a **story question** or **plot/grammar concern**, **please**, let me know via **Private Message (PM)** because I get back to those much faster than reviews, and questions **don't** count as reviews - which means they don't belong on a review page :P_

_Anyways, you know how it goes - remember to **Fave, Follow and Review** to show your support, and hang tight for the next chapter kicking off a new arc in **The Gamer Girl!** So take care,_

_**And Happy Reading!**_

P.S. For those who figured out which anime Jaune and Mercury's last bout was loosely based on, Pulsaverit is indeed Latin for Overdrive ;)

P.P.S. Big thanks to a certain Super Saiyan for letting me borrow name rights for a certain place of interest. This should be fun :)


	12. Bump

**_Bump_**

* * *

"Aaand, _that's_ how Mercury was defeated!"

With that, Ruby finished her dramatic interpretation of that afternoon's incidents, proudly placing her hands on her hips and puffing out her chest as Nora absolutely ate up every word and Weiss facepalmed with a small huff.

"That certainly sounds like a bizarre adventure," the heiress stated without her usual iciness as more of an admission than a rebuke, to which Jaune nodded in agreement.

"Heh, you can say _that_ again..."

"That sure sounds like a bizarre ad-!"

"Nora. You're not actually supposed to say it again," Ren interrupted smoothly, a small smile on his lips as he placed his hand on the hammer maiden's shoulder. The warm interaction was evident to their fellow teammates, Jaune and Pyrrha trading a smirk as they acknowledged the jade warrior's attachment to his partner.

"Meh, I still think it would've been cooler if you would've done something before springing that _Hamon_ trap - or whatever you call it - on Mercury, Saber-boy... y'know, like strike a pose or something!" Yang now stated with her winning grin, standing closer to the blonde knight than the students present had ever really seen her stand before. Needless to say, that was something that dimmed the smirk on the now slightly-exasperated Mistrali.

Jaune simply chuckled, looking down at his leg and motioning at the limb that had once been all but unusable, "Mangled leg, remember?"

Yang nodded in agreement, but before she could reply, or scoot any closer to her fellow blonde who had clearly begun to captivate her interest, the group was alerted to an eighth voice calling their attention.

"I'm back. Did I miss anything?"

Other than her voice giving away her position, Blake had managed not to alert a single one of the students to her presence; having given herself away so suddenly, she forced herself to face the sudden combined attention from the seven teens with little more than a slight reddening of her cheeks... which went a shade or two darker as she noticed Jaune noticing her new and thankfully untorn leggings that she had just gone back to her dorm to change into. But to the ravenette, it was now... strangely _not_ unwelcome, actually. However, briefly making eye contact, the two quickly broke their knowing gaze before anyone could notice despite Jaune's momentary blush that matched the catgirl's as Yang filled her in.

"Nah, just one of Ruby's famous story time sessions..."

Focusing on her partner's statement, Blake let her conflicting reactions to Jaune's apologetic smile give way to her usual mood, remaining tight-lipped and raising both brows in acknowledgment at Yang in her wordless response, "Hm."

Jaune of course knew what her body language meant, interpreting it accurately since it had been her general response to his initial rambling about RPGs and character builds in general. Being the case, he immediately had to stifle a chuckle; but before his partner could ask what was so funny, the entire group was now set upon by a caffeine-induced speedy entrance which all of them could swear _almost_ even rivalled Ruby's.

"Oho! Ladies and gentlemen what a fine pleasure to see you've all arrived in time what a fine pleasure indeed!"

"Remind me _never_ to give Ruby caffeine," Yang furtively whispered to the student standing next to her as Oobleck took a sip from what four of the girls present knew better than to call a simple thermos, to which the student glared up at the blonde with a deadpan.

"Yang, this _is_ Ruby."

"Doctor Oobleck, we are... surprised you are here to give us company," Weiss began with an almost painfully awkward politeness considering how things went the last time the fast-lipped explorer had lent their team his aide, "We had imagined Professors Goodwitch or Ozpin to give us the official briefing on behalf of Beacon administration..."

"Ah yes well unfortunately Miss Schnee that is not to be the case due to," _sip_, "complications arriving in Professor Goodwitch's teaching schedule and Professor Ozpin's availability," _sip_, "meaning that it is up to me to give your teams the proper send-off! Most exciting this is indeed!"

Having been unable to hear Blake's silent scoff at the mention of Ozpin's name, Doctor Oobleck cleared his throat to settle the grainy after-taste of heavily-caffeinated green tea in it before getting down to business.

"Very well. As most if not all of you may know Mister Arc and Miss Rose received identical messages not more than twenty minutes ago which means your teams have each been charged with mounting a recon mission as part of Beacon's heavily classified Independent Mandate Force!"

"The IMF?" Jaune interrupted, a raised brow accenting his slight confusion.

Oobleck paused for a moment, looking up as every student now heard the approaching hum of a Titan-class Bullhead from around the school towers. Larger than its Hunter-class counterpart, this Bullhead sported an extra smaller set of propellers on each wing, granting it greater mobility and enough space to house several Hunter teams on overnight mission flights.

"Excellent observation Mister Arc you are certainly correct!" he shouted over the hum of the airship as it landed by the dock where they were standing before taking another sip of tea and pointing his thermos to something behind the group, "This is a reconnaissance mission passed along the ranks of the Hunter's Association and placed under the jurisdiction of this fine academy and I assure you that we've taken utmost care to ensure your teams are properly protected. Here come the remainder of your Force now!"

Turning back to face eight more students approaching the group, grins were traded and greetings were said as team RWBY was approached first by a certain leader decked in Coco Chanel accessories - including the deceptively impractical fashionable handbag - with the rest of her team in tow. Jaune, however, traded groans with the second leader as his team was approached by the slightly scowling team CRDL.

"Why me..." Jaune sighed as the red-headed leader came up to him, Pyrrha already prepared to draw her weapons as Cardin crossed his arms and was seemingly about to say something.

But if he was, he was interrupted as Oobleck began speaking while the large bullhead side doors began to open.

"Your orders have been given and your destination set! This is ADA, your Automated Defense Airship that will be piloting you to Lambent and keeping a close eye on the surrounding areas to alert you of any danger. I presume each leader has their respective teams' items in their luggage item containers."

The four leaders nodded accordingly towards their packs which they had previously packed and vacuum-sealed to shrink them for the trip.

"But Professor," Ruby began, eliciting a dejected finger-raise from the bespeckled man before Blake corrected for her.

"_Doctor_."

"Oh, right. _Doctor_ Oobleck," Ruby continued, the smile quickly returning to the Hunter's face due to the catgirl's consideration, "The message states that the facility is right in the middle of the badlands. Won't it be crawling with high-ranking Grimm?"

"Why yes Miss Rose it is extremely likely!" Oobleck replied speedily, immediately causing the sixteen students in front of him to tense up a bit, "However preliminary reports state that there has been a lack of Grimm activity in the area as of late but there's still an active Dust-Laser Defense system surrounding the facility which ADA will be happy to arm as your group goes through! Due to the lack of Grimm presence and any further source of hostility that is why the mission was left to Beacon to take care of since we currently cannot spare any of the local Hunters!"

"So we're pretty much being sent because no one else feels like going," Coco stated blandly, putting her hand on her hip as she popped a bubble gum bubble and continued, "Those systems are notoriously susceptible to Grimm raids in large numbers, which might even be the reason the place got trashed in the first place. You sayin' we might have to face off against _another_ load of those motherfu-"

She was promptly halted by the sensation of Yatsuhashi's hand on her shoulder, the tallest and largest student in the second year grade merely shaking his head before retracting his hand and letting the cocoa-themed leader continue with an evident eye-roll behind her shades.

"-_Another_ pack of those _things_ like we did at the pavilion breach a couple weeks ago?"

The remaining students turned to see the Doctor respond, who merely smiled at the second-year leader before beginning in his animated lecture voice, "Miss Adel I believe it is best to reply with some valuable information supplied to every Hunter upon graduating due to the unique and important nature of this mission," _sip_, "and might I add one that is normally assigned to a single team of Hunters but that we've gone ahead and taken on with _four_ in your case," _sip_, "The point is this and only this, one that has been proven time and time again throughout history and of Man's eons of war against the creatures of darkness: do any of you know the difference between people and Grimm?"

Nora beamed, raising her hand and bouncing at her current spot before interjecting, "I know! It's-"

"_Please_ Miss Valkyrie do not interrupt me while I'm asking rhetorical questions!" the Doctor quipped at the deflated hammer maiden before taking a sip of his tea and facing the group again, "Courage ladies and gentlemen! The difference is _Courage!_ You may believe this to be a result of strength but it is not. Why you may ask? Because Courage is the opposite of strength," _sip_, "Courage is _fear_, forged into unbridled power through an indomitable will and a determined soul! Grimm lack emotion and thus a soul and cannot experience fear - therefore they can never find it in themselves to display courage! And without that power, even armies of Grimm will prove completely and utterly useless against you if you never fail to use that power for yourselves!"

The group of students listened, enraptured by the charismatic passion that team RWBY had only ever seen in their witnessing his combat prowess in action, and let out a collective breath which they didn't realize they were holding as the Doctor concluded.

"And ADA will be sure to collect you all at the first sign of a Grimm attack."

Simply raising a brow behind her shades, casting a cursory glance back at her team and turning back to face the Doctor with a small smirk, Coco shrugged, "Alright. We're in."

Coco began walking into the Bullhead with her team in tow, Velvet sparing Blake a quick smile and wave before entering the airship but not before her leader shouted with a finger in the air without turning to face the group behind her, "But _I_ call dibs on the Master Suite!"

Blake turned to see Oobleck slightly unsettled by the remark, her Faunus hearing picking up his muttered observation that he probably hadn't meant to say out loud, "Oh dear, Ozpin _is_ right. It's like contemplating Glynda back when she wore pants..."

But before she could react, he had already regained his composure and addressed the remainder of the group, "Very well students off you go! Be sure to report your findings through ADA's communications console should you find any evidence as to what caused the emergency beacon to activate. Best of luck, stay safe, and trust in one another!"

And with that, he sped off, leaving the students to blink in his wake and trade a few glances before stepping onto the entry ramp of the airship. However, Jaune let JNPR's pack be snatched by Nora and stayed back as his team moved forward, huffing as he steeled himself to hold back the bane of his first semester at Beacon once the massive side doors closed. This was a motion that didn't escape the eye of a certain ravenette.

"Cardin, we need to talk. And apparently, you already had something to say."

Sporting a slight grimace, the bulky fighter merely nodded to his team to let them go ahead and find their rooms before turning to meet the blonde's worried but firm gaze.

"Look, Jauney-boy," he began, a restrained tone of hostility still managing to bleed through his voice, "Let's get one thing straight. You and me may have the same rank as team leader, and you _may_ have that lucky Aura of yours that saved our butts back in Forever Fall, but I can _still_ squash you-"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that."

Cardin stepped back, startled as the catgirl stepped into their conversation with nary a sound, but only seemed to scowl more as the knight and ravenette traded a warm smirk. However, much to Jaune's particular surprise, Cardin merely put his palm to his face and dragged his hand down, the resulting expression unexpectedly more sympathetic than antagonistic.

"_Look_," he began once more, letting out a deep breath as he eyed both students in turn, "Let me rephrase that. I got reasons not to like _you_, and I got reasons not to like _her_..."

Cardin paused as both guys noticed Blake letting out a derisive scoff which actually came out more like a feline hiss of disdain before he could continue, "_But_... I've got even _bigger_ reasons to get along with you two now."

Jaune raised a brow as he quickly ascertained the motive, "Professor Dandelion's elective for Struggling Teens and Troubled Youths?"

"Yeah," Cardin sighed out in resignation, letting his gaze drop to the floor, "Prof says that if we can handle this assignment without incident, we'll be released from the elective and our records cleaned. And I don't need to tell you that the offer was pretty tempting - the guy's brutal..."

Blake had to stifle a quick chuckle, putting her hand over her mouth under the guise of scratching her nose to cover her growing smile before adding with masked amusement, "Isn't... isn't that the class where Jaune's team helped tutor you guys for that _'Team-Building Exercise'_?"

Cardin raised a brow at the catgirl with his deadpan and flat reply, "_Yeah_. Dove still can't walk straight after that little incident with that crazy ginger girl's war hammer, and I'm pretty sure Sky actually _did_ piss himself. Needless to say... feeling what it's like on the other side of the pain-dealing was a bit of a turning point for us. I mean, Professor Dandelion says we have potential and all, and that this may be our first chance to finally prove it... so here I am, trying to prove it."

Jaune merely turned to face Blake with a quirked brow as the seemingly repentant leader shuddered and let his gaze drop again, the knight earning a small shrug from the ravenette in response. After all, he was the one who knew that the up-and-coming Professor had instructed Nora to "drop the hammer", using his words, on those four all along. The Professor - or Nora, in hindsight - may have been brutal, but it was indeed effective.

Turning to see the changed mace-wielder before them, Blake focused on Cardin's head to test the strange Professor's claim to potential. After a few blinks, the desired information populated over his head in the familiar neon-letter format she'd become so used to seeing.

**|The Strongarm|  
****LV15 Cardin Winchester**

'Not bad,' the catgirl mused as the subject in question let out a somber sigh, 'Maybe that professor whose name I've never really heard of has a point.'

"But look Jauney-boy, all that aside," Cardin stated, steeling his resolve as he now looked back up at the knight with a proud expression and unexpectedly stuck out his hand, "I guess what I wanna say is, how 'bout we let bygones..."

A pregnant silence now hanging in the air, Jaune blinked with slight surprise at the sudden change in attitude but caught on quickly, smiling as he shook said hand and finished for him, "Be bygones."

Nodding with a considerably impressed expression at how far Cardin had come in his rehabilitation, the knight could still only watch with a total lack of surprise as the burly student then turned to give Blake a quick once-over before quipping, "No offense, but I still think you actually looked better _with_ the bow."

And with that, Cardin turned to leave, the catgirl glaring daggers at the back of his head with narrowed eyes as Jaune watched her with an amused smirk.

"Would it still be wrong to say that you should've let him get mauled by that Ursa back in Forever Fall?"

He deadpanned at the ravenette as she turned up to meet his gaze with a mock-innocent expression.

"What, I didn't say you should've let it _kill_ him..."

Jaune meant to reply, but before he could, the pair was interrupted by the sudden unlatching of the bay window right behind them and the momentary rush of wind that came with it. With better reflexes upon sensing the danger, Blake then ducked as Jaune was then promptly whipped in the face... by a flailing blonde monkey tail.

"Sun!?"

No sooner had the catgirl uttered that name in surprise when a flash of blue interrupted the monkey-faunus' attempt at a hand wave from the floor, a second student now crashing down on him.

"_ARGH__!_ Swiss friggin' _cheese, _you landed on my _testicles,_ you useless heterosexual!"

"Neptune!?" Jaune now added with equal surprise as he recovered by rubbing the bridge of his nose, the face-down blue-haired student in question merely reaching up from Sun's pained form with scroll in hand and pushing a button to close the access bay window.

"How'd you both get in here?" the ravenette asked subsequently, the _Gamer's Mind_ having already erased any remnant of her momentary shock by the time the window fully shut.

"Would you believe - _ow_," Sun began gruffly as he and Neptune separated into somewhat seated positions, "Would you believe me if I said we were forced to hold on to the outer hull of the Bullhead mid-flight because _someone_ couldn't manage to open the right access door?"

"Hey! I may be an intellectual, but it doesn't mean hacking a _Bullhead_ comes easy to me!" Neptune quipped in reply.

"One door! All you had to do was open _one_ door!" the blonde Faunus shot back before wincing in pain, both hands immediately shooting towards his crotch, "And Monty dickie-Grimm Oum, next time buy dinner _first_, bluetard!"

Neptune crossed his arms, rolling his eyes before the group of students were interrupted by an elated exclamation.

"Neptune, you're here!"

"Of course!" the blue-haired Havenite smoothly responded, standing up and walking over to meet the grinning heiress in a full embrace, "And it looks like Snow Angels _do_ fly over Remnant, after all."

Weiss simply giggled at the remark as she held him tightly, Blake raising a brow as Sun slowly staggered to an upright position by her side.

"You know what, Ruby's right. Seeing Weiss smiling so much really _is_ somewhat weird."

Both blondes at either side of the ravenette wordlessly nodded their heads at her remark before Neptune pulled away from his ice princess and turned to face the trio.

"Hey guys, Weiss says that everyone's in the common area. Sun, me and you can even get our own rooms! Why don't we go meet up with everyone now before checking them out?"

Sun turned to smirk at Blake with a small wink, "Hear that? Looks like Nep and me are in like dirty laundry. I guess you'll be seeing us quite a bit during _this_ field trip!"

His flirtatious demeanor wasn't lost on the catgirl, who merely scooted just a little closer to Jaune if at least to distance herself from the outgoing stowaway's impending advances as she replied, "I... suppose. So um, Jaune, you'll accompany me to the commons area, right?"

At that, each blonde raised a brow in much the same manner before Jaune replied in confusion, "Huh? I thought you'd take this kind of chance to find an out-of-the-way nook and read a book alon- oof!"

Fortunately for Blake, it only took a quick glare - and elbow to the ribs - to get him to understand what otherwise would've gone right over his head.

"Oh! I mean, uh, of course!" the knight corrected himself quickly, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck as he chuckled nervously at the still-confused Sun, "You didn't bring a book... I think. Hehe. So um, sure thing, I'll go with you!"

The monkey-faunus merely glanced between the knight and catgirl for a slightly uncomfortable moment before shrugging and turning to his partner, "Sounds like a plan, blue dude! I guess Jauney-boy here's just gonna ride as third wheel with- GRK!"

Their heads snapping to see Sun suddenly hunch over as he took his first step, he merely raised a finger slowly as his other hand cradled his sore package, "Actually... you know what... I think, I think I'm just gonna find a room right now. The family jewels... _seriously_ need some rest!"

Trading an unsure glance between each other as if deciding whether to feel pity or amusement, Weiss gave Neptune a curt nod in the direction of the extra rooms before the suave student took care of the rest, "Kay dude, suit yourself. Rooms are over there. You two can follow us, I guess."

Waving at Sun with her self-defined 'pity wave' as the injured guy limped over to his new room, Blake turned to face a curious Jaune as he tapped her shoulder.

"What was _that_ about?"

"What was what about."

The knight merely glanced pointedly at the direction Sun went as the pair began following Weiss and Neptune who were a fair distance down the hall in their own conversation.

"Nothing," Blake replied flatly, looking forward with a nonchalant shrug, "But... thanks for going along with it."

Jaune scoffed playfully as he nudged her in the arm with his own, "So I'm getting blown off with a _thank you?_ C'mon, what's the deal between you two? You seemed to be okay with him at the dance."

"You noticed?" the ravenette quickly questioned, her eyes furtively darting up to search his surprised expression for clues. And suddenly, the calm and collected catgirl wished she had the audacity of someone like Yang to simply come right out with it and ask _why_. Or to at least tease it out of him with wiggly brows and an anime-perfect stutter-inducing wink.

And though Blake knew she simply wasn't that kind of girl, she knew that the question had still undeniably crossed her mind. _Why would he notice something like that? Was it something that mattered to him? Was he... jealous?_

"Well, yeah," he began, catching the girl by surprise as her eyes widened a bit with the faintest of blushes, "I mean, you and Sun danced to a song like two tables away from us. Both me and Pyrrha noticed from where we were talking at our own table."

"Ah. Right," Blake drawled, mentally facepalming herself for having let her mind wander like that to which he merely raised a brow at her with a small smirk.

"So…?"

"So," she continued thoughtfully, replaying a few post-dance encounters between the two, "It was the least I could do to thank him for sticking around. I mean… I know he cares, but aside from our heritage… there's really nothing we share in common."

"At all?" Jaune asked with some surprise, the ravenette flatly shaking her head in reply.

"At all."

"Oh."

Jaune might've continued speaking as the pair turned the corner at the entry of the main room, but Blake's attention was suddenly focused elsewhere as a notification popped up.

**_DING!_**

**[You sense an acute source of danger.]**

"Incoming."

Instinctively ducking at the remark, Jaune dodged a flying object which the catgirl caught with impressive reflexes by the tail end. Running to meet them was Ren, who seemed a little paler than normal as he beckoned for the object with a raised hand and Blake handed it over as he explained.

"Thank goodness you caught it. Ruby and Nora started having a pillow fight when Ruby accidentally mistook Nora's travel bag for a pillowcase."

"But… Nora's bag _is_ a pillowcase," Blake observed with a raised brow, turning to Jaune for clarification.

"There are many things Nora does that people don't understand. We just kinda roll with it," Jaune added with a shrug before turning to Ren with curiosity, "You seem really relieved, though. Was there something important in there?"

At that, the stoic student reached into the bright pink pillowcase after regaining his composure, pulling out a small music player connected to a pair of bright pink headphones.

"_Yes_," Ren replied indicatively, "If these would've been broken, Nora would've become _very_ upset. And being that we're in the air and have no way to replace it… there's no telling what she'd do…"

"Oh Renny you saved my stuff!" Nora cut in as she approached the group with a wide grin, followed in the distance by a sheepishly apologetic Ruby as the hammer maiden checked to see if the music player worked, "Perfect! All good here; see for yourself, Jauney!"

Suddenly handing the device to her leader, Jaune spared Ren a questioning glance to which his teammate shrugged and nodded for the blonde knight to take it. Putting it on, Jaune was surprised to hear the interestingly serene melody being played by violin.

"Wow, Nora… I had no idea you listened to classical music."

"Wait for the drop," Ren mumbled enigmatically, raising the ravenette's curiosity before she heard the music suddenly stop in the headphones Jaune was wearing…

**BWAAAAAWAWAWAW BWAAAWAWAWA BWAAAAWAWAWAW… **

Blake could've sworn she saw Jaune's eyes vibrating in his head before he yanked off the headphones with a squeal, catching them when he let them drop lest they be damaged when they hit the floor.

"Gah! W-What _was_ that!?"

"Classical dubstep," Nora replied with her usual bubbly grin as Ren nodded understandingly as his aching leader.

"I tried to get her into classical… but she ended up taking it a step further."

"Yep! My cousin actually made that one – he's a DJ in Vacuo who goes by the name Hansel Thorn. He even named it Valkyrie after our family name!"

"She was also introduced to Lindsey Stirling's music through him as well, solidifying her love for classical dubstep," Ren added meekly with a sigh as Nora nodded emphatically at Jaune. To the bewildered knight, it was clear that Ren had been used to the interesting quirks of Nora's infinite playlist for quite some time now.

Now deciding to tune out of the conversation, Blake decided to step aside to the large velvety couch beside the group and lay back against the armrest as Nora began telling her teammates about the first time she met Lindsey Stirling. The catgirl nearly unwittingly placed the headphones over her own ears, settling into the music as she shut her eyes.

'Hm, not bad…'

The thought lingered as the heavy bass blared on in her mind at full volume. Blake felt like she could relate to the music and its doubtless effect on Nora's personality; sure, she wasn't a music junkie in the least, preferring an intriguing book over the often unfulfilling tracks of mainstream artists. But then again, something about hi hats, snare drums and electric guitars roaring along at face-melting tempos in the kinds of tracks she listened to just made her feel at peace.

She didn't even realize she had fallen asleep until several rough pokes to her side caused her to sit up in a start and open her eyes.

"Hey, Snugglebutt! Just gotta say, you drool when you sleep…"

Letting herself slouch back on the armrest with a slow huff, Blake rolled her eyes at her ever-blunt partner.

"Yang…"

The blonde brawler in question merely stood over the catgirl with a mischievous grin as Blake slowly realized that the sun was much closer to the horizon than she previously expected from the large windows around the empty common area.

"How long was I out?"

"Meh," Yang replied with a neutral expression, prompting a soft glare from the amber-eyed girl. But before Blake could ask for clarification, Yang continued, "Heya, Blakey. I got a question."

A raised brow from the ravenette.

"Saber-bo- I mean, Jaune. You spend a lot of time with him…"

"…And?"

"Well… what's he like?"

The catgirl furrowed her brows at the unexpected question, her gaze slowly dropping downwards as she thought about it for a moment.

"He's… nice," she drawled at first, picking up to a more natural speed as she continued, "I mean, now that I think of it, he's rather considerate and thoughtful of others. Sure, he can be a bit awkward at first, but he's got an interesting way of keeping your attention as things go on, too. Does that answer your question?"

Yang slowly half-nodded, half shook her head in what ended up looking like a circular motion before chuckling at her partner, "Man, you've got a really dry way of describing people, Kit-Kat. And for a second I thought it might be different in Saber-boy's case… ah well, I take it you and him aren't like, a thing, right?"

Blake fought back a short burst of surprise that threatened to reach her cheeks as she retorted, "Of course not."

However, she could feel her feline ears flattening a bit over her head as Yang stared at her intently for a long second before shrugging with a small smile, "Okay, cool. Cuz I kinda asked him out while you were knocked out on the couch!"

At that, Blake's mask of indifference cracked with her reply, "Y-You _what?_"

"Sheesh, Blakey, I thought you two weren't a thing~"

"We're not!"

"So… no harm no foul, right?" Yang concluded with a triumphant grin at her most recent feat of wooing. But still, Blake couldn't believe it… had Yang actually done that!?

"I thought he wasn't your type," Blake defended mousily, looking down at her hands firmly clasped between her thighs with a small blush.

"Well I never said that," Yang corrected while looking up in thought, "And the more I thought about it, the more I realized, 'Why not?' Oum knows the guy would never ask someone out by his own choice first!"

"But… what about Pyrrha?"

Blake knew that everyone else with half a mind had caught wind of the Mistrali's fondness for her leader, but at this point she was just grasping for straws, hoping for reasons totally beyond her that this was just some strange, strange antic that the blonde bomber was playing at again.

"She wasn't in the room when I popped the question," she remarked thoughtfully before turning to her cat-eared partner with a matter-of-factly grin, "But that's not my problem! Nice girls finish last! And if she's choking by not having told him for this long, then she's obviously not ready. But I am!~ I mean, c'mon, just look at me!"

At that, Yang lifted her arms up to show herself off as she did a small twirl in front of Blake. The catgirl noticed only then that Yang had ditched her usual attire for the dress and makeup she had worn in the dance and immediately felt her stomach twist with the knot of irony at the visual reminder of the subject she and Jaune had just been speaking about earlier as well.

"Who's to say he's attracted?" Blake nearly spat out, surprised at the tone she had unwittingly used but somewhat relieved that Yang didn't catch onto it while admiring her form in the reflection of the Bullhead windows.

"You kidding? Of _course_ he's attracted! I'll have you know that this perfectly crafted body you see here has been the cause of five car crashes in my lifetime. _Five_," Yang quipped as the catgirl merely let her jaw slacken a bit before Yang held up two fingers, "And two of them were fatal!"

Blake then facepalmed as she shook her head, "Ugh…"

However, the catgirl was surprised when she found herself hoisted up and placed on her feet by her grinning partner who promptly turned her around and began walking her back towards the rooms by the backs of her shoulders.

"Aaanyways, hate to move things along so fast, but me and Jaune are due to have some dinner here in a sec, and I kinda need you to not be here when it starts."

"You made food?" Blake asked incredulously, turning her head a bit as her partner's superior strength had her still walking forwards by force.

"Raided a convenience fridge in the galley and nuked what I could find."

"Figures."

And just like that, a door was reached, a scroll swept, and a very internally confused ravenette dumped in a room before Yang waved a short goodbye.

"Thanks for the talk! See ya later!"

_Slam!_

"…"

"Ugh, that went much weirder than expected," the miffed catgirl mumbled as the lights around the room automatically turned on with her presence. It wasn't much – just a cot on one end with a closet that looked more like a locker on the other with her pajamas and extra gear likely already packed inside by Ruby – but she was content enough to settle with pulling back the sheets on the cot and to get in.

But even then, Blake couldn't quite get the subject out of her mind. Of course, it didn't help when she heard the faint sounds of movement and Yang's flirtatious tone drifting through the halls, either. Turning around to resist the urge to eavesdrop by burying her head and both pairs of ears into her pillow, Blake huffed into the fabric as she mumbled out her thoughts.

"No… way. I'm actually _bothered_ by this."

She couldn't help berating herself for it: an ex-terrorist with senses honed to track and hunt with lethal efficiency… reduced to a smoldering wreck about a boy. Sure, she had spent a considerable amount of time with the blonde knight over the past few weeks, which by now felt more like months. And even _she_ had to admit that she was beginning to enjoy his company more and more to the point that she was even forgiving him for doing things that she'd have obliterated any other boy for doing!

'So… isn't it at least logical that I'd be a _little_ jealous at the prospect of Jaune sharing his attentions with someone else?'

Blake didn't know if that was _Gamer's Mind_ speaking or not… but something deeper within was beginning to admit that logic couldn't quite cover these types of emotions anymore.

Blake cared about Jaune.

No point in denying it. But just how much was her best guess. Still, she didn't know if she was quite ready for that close of a relationship with anyone yet, at least for now. As her unknowingly tense expression began to soften with the flashing memories of friends she once held dear, Blake pondered and fought with emotions long buried… emotions she once thought she had snuffed from existence… emotions…

_"You know, for a girl who tries to act so emotionless, you sure let emotions run most of the things you do…"_

_"Shut up."_

_Despite the flat remark, the catgirl's smirk didn't go unnoticed by the owner of the gruff voice she whose eye contact she was playfully trying to avoid._

_"Just saying. But still, I couldn't have asked for a better student… you've truly become way better than I could've ever hoped to be."_

_"I know. You literally tell me that all the time, Tukson," Blake replied with an eye-roll and small smile before adding, "Besides, you never did hold up well against a leg based offense..." _

_But as they stood at the exit of an unmarked outpost belonging to a brotherhood she once called hers, even then, Blake couldn't help keeping her mischievous smirk from turning somber._

_"This place... It isn't what it used to be, Blake. You need to get out while you still can," Tukson noted before making a motion to place a hand on her shoulder but drawing it back, "Whether you agree or not, I won't be here when you come back." _

_"Just one more job. I put my whole life into this, I have to be sure," the catgirl replied, completing his motion and placing her hand on his well-formed arm. Besides, she owed it to her race. She owed it to the group she had spent most of her life with. She even owed it to her newest mentor, a man she hoped still had the untainted sense of justice he'd had when she first allowed him to take her under his wings for the Fang's highest form of black-ops. Nevertheless, she knew that her childhood guardian, the one who had shared and eventually passed on his love of books and martial arts to her, still had a point._

_"I know," he replied while playfully ruffling her hair while being careful not to undo the bow. After all, he had suggested the idea when she was much younger to help shield her from the worst of humankind's discrimination as well. "Just a train heist in Fall Forest… at least you get to stay in Vytal this time. I won't be too far. I'll probably stick around the kingdom for a few months; you know, earn some lien before I head out to Vacuo." _

_She smiled as she took his hand with both of hers, a warm grin belying the sadness in her amber eyes, "Thank you. I guess… I guess this is Good Bye..."_

_As her gaze then slowly began to fall to let her hair obscure her expression, the catgirl was surprised when her fellow feline Faunus picked up her chin with his free hand and a small chuckle, "You make it sound like it's the last time we ever see each other! Look, keep your chin up and use your abilities for the right thing, no matter what. You'll be alright outside of these walls."_

_Blake scoffed, her deadpan glare present not only because of his joking attitude but because of his presumption that he already thought he knew that she'd leave the organization, "Not many nine-to-five jobs out there that my skill set is actually good for." _

_At that, the burly puma faunus hummed in thought, retracting his arms to cross them in front of himself and pensively place a hand to his chin, "Hmm… maybe you could try your hand at being a huntress. Different methods, same cause." _

_The ravenette couldn't help but cock her head at her deceptively wise older mentor. Of all the things she had imagined herself doing had she never joined the White Fang, being a Huntress had never really crossed her mind. After all, she sought equality between humans and faunus. What better way to do that than showing they could work shoulder to shoulder against a common enemy?_

_"Maybe... Maybe you're right."_

_"Heh, I'm always right!" Tucson replied with a confident grin before tapping his former disciple's shoulder with his fist, "Hey, we'll meet again. I promise."_

_Blake turned to cast him a delicately placed smile as she slowly shook her head._

_"Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep."_

_At that, her dear friend and mentor gave no reply, only giving her the warmest of smiles before turning to walk away._

**_DING!_**

**[After a full night's rest, HP and MP has been fully recovered!]**

The daily notification unfailing as always, Blake slowly awoke with tears in her eyes as the sounds of banging on room doors became more noticeable.

"C'mon, kids! Rise and shine!"

Likely Coco by the sound of it.

Taking a deep breath, Blake let out her pent up thoughts and emotions in a single tremor before standing and stepping over to the locker to change her gear. Pulling up her inventory, she pulled out the uniform skirt she had stored and replaced it with an extra pair of leggings… Oum knew those things had a terrible knack of tearing. Pulling on the rest of her gear and walking over to the small sink at the other end of the room to reapply her makeup over the smeared remnants of that of the night before, Blake set herself to thinking with a clearer mind.

Her feelings for Jaune… were complicated. She liked him as a friend, and a surprisingly good one at that. But 'friend' didn't quite seem to describe it anymore. Only time would tell, she thought, since things worth having should never be rushed. Until then, she'd have to make sure that she didn't jeopardize what they already had…

_Bang Bang!_

"Oh, Blaa-aake~"

The second banging on her door eliciting a small grunt from the catgirl as she put on the finishing touches on her makeup, she was about to put on the bow on instinct before recalling Jaune's words and putting it away in her inventory with a warm smile.

"Coming…"

A moment later, Blake opened the slide-up door to see a grinning Yang back in her combat gear.

"You seem… pretty happy this morning."

"That's cuz I am!" the brawler replied as the pair began walking towards the side-door entryway.

"I take it… last night went well?"

As if it weren't possible, Yang's grin grew a little wider as she began to make a face much like Ruby's when the topic of cookies was brought up.

"Yep! It was pretty nice. Nothing magical or anything, but we had a good meeeal, we read some fanfiction togetheeer, he touched my leeeg-"

The ravenette immediately scrunched her face at the thought, suddenly regretting having asked the question in the first place which earned a nudge from her partner.

"Oh c'mon, Blake. It wasn't like he did it on purpose," she continued with a mischievous grin, "I 'accidentally' dropped my scroll behind me when we were chilling on the couch and conveniently moved myself into the way of his hand as he reached for it~"

"I'm going to be sick…"

"The way he turned so red was the most adorable thing! And then I invited him back to my room~"

At that, Blake quickly turned her head to stare at her partner, her eyes a little wide and her skin a little paler as the lilac-eyed blonde let her story-telling smirk fade a little at her partner's countenance.

"Sheesh, Blake, snap out of it," Yang quipped with the smallest tinge of worry as she playfully punched the catgirl on the shoulder, "It's not like he accepted. He went beet reed and shot out like a million excuses in a second before we said goodnight. He thanked me for hanging out and we, you know… parted ways and stuff."

With her last statements, Blake felt her natural body heat returning to thaw out the clamminess which had set into her system. 'Hanging out'? Did Jaune even realize he'd scored a date with arguably one of the hottest girls in Beacon!?

Suddenly, Blake had to hold back a small smirk at her revelation. Knowing Jaune and his painfully obvious lack of experience with women… he likely wouldn't even know a date if he was on one. And just like that, the ravenette began to shake her head with an understanding smile at her partner.

"It's fine. I guess it's just my imagination… running away with me."

"Yeah, I figured. Too much _Ninjas of Love_ smut fueling that surprisingly prude brain of yours~"

"It's not smut!" Blake complained loudly before stopping cold in her tracks upon realizing the pair were the last to reach the side-door entryway… currently occupied by every other member of their task force.

Coco, who was standing in the center of the now awkwardly-silent group, merely raised a brow behind her ever-present shades before continuing.

"Right. Okay, ladies-"

"-Um, there are dudes here, too, you know…"

Some of the students turned towards the sound of the voice from Cardin's group. Could've been Dove. Or maybe Sky. Nobody cared.

"Anywayyy, _ladies_," Coco continued indicatively, "Looks like we're approaching the wonderful world of Lambent. Their systems will be armed, but we won't take any chances. We still don't know what's inside that place."

Suddenly, the accessorized leader paused, suddenly noticing something amiss and tilting down her shades at her new subjects of curiosity, "And who are _you_ two supposed to be?"

Sun and Neptune traded a quick nervous glance before simultaneously reaching into their pockets.

"Junior detectives," Sun began meekly as both quickly flipped open their badges before Neptune finished just as quickly.

"So you know it's official…"

Not even casting a glance at the brass, Coco idly motioned her head back towards her auburn teammate, "Fox? How's your semblance in the morning."

The student in question stepped forward, causing no small measure of discomfort in the room as he immediately zeroed in on the two Havenites despite his clouded milky eyes.

"Heartbeats normal… they're not lying."

At that, a sudden lunge of the aircraft caught everyone by surprise, Coco casting a cursory glance out the nearby access bay window before turning to face the group.

"Okay, that was the laser defense system kindly letting us through. We'll be landing at any-"

**_SHOOM_**

"…second," she finished as the unexpected jolt caused everyone to lose their balance. As the slightly miffed second-year leader now straightened up to slide her shades back onto place, she glared at the two stowaways, "As for you two, fine. Just do your jobs, and otherwise stay out of our way."

"I take it we've landed," Velvet now spoke up with her distinctive accent, prompting the purse-wielder to nod in agreement as the sounds of the side doors depressurizing filled the room.

"Alright everyone," Coco now commanded as the door began to crack open from the top down, "Let's roll out!"

* * *

**A/N:** _Two words, dear readers: **Password problems**._

_That should answer about 97.3% of all questions asked between the posting of last chapter and this one._

_Anyway, moving on. So… I was asked about six months ago by a reviewer in another story if I'd consider doing something called an** 'omake'**. I said no at the time, mostly because I had no idea what an omake **was**. However, after reading over the last few weeks several examples of excellently executed omakes, I've decided to give it a shot! But… since I like to give things a little twist, I'm going to do something a little different. Instead of a straight omake, this omake – and potentially future ones if I decide to do so – will feature a **crossover!** That's right, every spin-off from the story will involve a crossover with another fandom which I've dubbed a **Crossov-omake**! Not as smooth as Knightshade, I know, but I'm sticking to it. Let me know what you think!_

* * *

**Crossov-omake #1: _Avengers_**

* * *

"So… it was the least I could do to thank him for sticking around. I mean… I know he cares, but aside from our heritage… there's really nothing we share in common."

"At all?" Jaune asked with some surprise, the ravenette flatly shaking her head in reply.

"At all."

"Oh."

Jaune might've continued speaking as the pair turned the corner at the entry of the main room, but Blake's attention was suddenly focused elsewhere as a notification popped up.

**_DING!_**

**[You sense an acute source of danger.]**

"Incoming."

Unfortunately, the knight's reflexes weren't fast enough to dodge the heap of items which flew in to noisily crash against him.

"Ack! What was _in_ that thing!?"

Bending down to pick up what looked like a pink pillowcase as Ren ran over with a significantly paler face than normal, Jaune reached in to pull out a jumbled mess of wires and a busted pair of pink on-ear headphones. At that, Ren froze in his tracks like a deer in headlights as he caught sight of the items, concern growing within Blake as she watched the usually well-composed student slowly begin shaking his head in fear.

"Oh no… Dear Monty, what have we done?"

"What happened?" Blake asked as Jaune glanced at the broken electronics and back at his teammate in confusion.

But Ren only took a few hesitant steps back before Nora and Ruby came running over to the scene of the accident.

"Renny! Were you able to save my _*gaaaaaaaaasp*_"

**_DING!_**

**[You've detected a strong bloodlust.]**

Blake then understood the danger they were all in as Nora turned red and began yelling at no one in particular.

"You… _broke_… **_my_**… **_EAR-THINGIES!_**"

At that moment, Jaune, Blake, Ruby, and everyone else in the room could only look on in shock as Ren knelt down to cower behind the couch, shivering as he repeated over and over, "Not like this… Not like this!"

"U-Um, Nora… maybe we can work things out," a very apologetic Ruby now tried to interject, "Maybe you can use my-"

**_BABOOM!_**

An unexpectedly close thunder-clap suddenly caused the airship to lurch violently as the remaining students stumbled into the commons area and the hairs on everyone's necks began standing on end.

"N-Nora, w-what are you doing?" Jaune asked nervously with a loud gulp as Nora suddenly raised her dominant arm up into the air.

"Well, _Jaune_, you're not the _only_ one who's gotta use cool lines to activate your noble phantasm!"

"It's _not_ a noble phantasm!"

But it was too late. Nora began her aria as heavy rain began pelting the aircraft…

"_O Monty,_  
_Bless this Thy hammer,_  
_That with it Thou mayest smash Thine enemies to tiny bits..._  
_In Thy mercy!_"

And flashing a bright shade of pink, Yang's, Pyrrha's and even Yatsuhashi's attempt to tackle the hammer maiden failed as Magnihild flew into the grasp of Nora's upheld hand and sent the students flying back with searing tendrils of electricity. With a mighty roar, Nora then readied to put the hammer down with a fell swoop at the cabin floor in her anger as every student said their final prayers.

"YAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

**_…_**

"And that, dear brothers, is how the first Valkyrie blasted her way through spatial dimensions into the realm of Aasgard. Stranded in the godly world free of the creatures of darkness and despite all odds, it was _she_ who went on to wed Jaune of Arc... and thus began the great line of Valkyries who would one day birth the great King Odin who now reigns over the Nine Worlds from Valhalla!"

Three faces merely stare at the enthusiastic God of Thunder from the penthouse of one of the tallest buildings in New York, the ornate **_A_** logo for the strongest team of heroes the world has to offer proudly hanging outside the windows.

"So she became Queen of the Castle in the end after all," one of the faces finally begins as he sits back in his seat and takes a sip of his kale smoothie forced upon him by his girlfriend/ex-secretary/CEO while idly motioning at his facial features, "And this Jaune guy. Blonde hair, blue eyes. I guess that runs in the family now?"

"Indeed it does, Stark."

"...Makes perfect sense."

The trio remain staring at the great war hammer resting at Thor's side, the living legend letting his gaze drop to the weapon as well before adding, "The grenade function on Mjölnir, as it was dubbed after the incident, was lost several millennia ago; many say that the lost ability was merely a fable that went with the First Valkyrie's exploits. The same goes for the supposed insignia of a pink heart on the sides."

"But what happened to their previous world?" the second face asks curiously, snapping his fingers as he tries to remember the name, "Um, Remnant! What happened to that place?"

The large man standing over the three men listening to him on the couch in the large modern living area lets his shoulders slacken a bit, a slightly somber mood dampening his deep voice for a moment as he replies, "Alas, Captain Rogers, by the time the Bifrost came to be, Remnant had already fallen to the darkness... and become the wasteland known as Svartalfheim."

"So no one survived!?"

"Only a small number..."

"Sheesh," Stark interrupts with an eye-roll, heavily dubious of the lore, "If there were so few, why not ferry them all into the wonderful world of Aasgard?"

"No, not small in number," the blonde man standing replies, "Small in _stature_. And over time, they had become tainted by the darkness and elected to remain in their accursed world ruled by their accursed ruler..."

At that, the third face interjects for the first time, trying to put two and two together, "The world of the dark elves... ain't that where your boy Malekith came from, Thor?"

Thor crosses his arms over the group in front of him, looking at the third with some confusion, "I don't have any offspring..."

"Don't sweat it, Legolas," Stark quips as he clarifies the misunderstanding, "That's not what Falcon here means to say."

"Stumped me the first time, too," Rogers adds with an understanding nod. But Falcon only throws his hands up in frustration at the billionaire.

"For the tenth time, Tony, my name is _Sam_. Sam Wilson! You don't hear me calling you _Iron Man_ every time we meet up, do you?"

"First of all. This is only the _second_ time I invite you over, and I'm becoming more and more inclined to say that it should be the last. And second," Tony pauses, dragging his hand down his face and finally deciding simply to come clean, "I... honestly never got around to learning your actual name, anyway."

"Seriously?"

Thor raises a brow despite the smirk gracing his lips at the antics of the petty tiny humans, "Sam is right, Stark. He deserves due honor as a future member of the Avengers."

"Y'know, that's something else I don't get," Tony adds pointedly, putting his glass of green liquid down on the table in front of the couch with a loud _clank_, "Why do they feel they have to add new people to the team? We're fine as we are! And _this_ guy here has barely faced a single threat with Cap and he's already being given a spot? What gives!?"

"It was a big threat!" Sam defends heatedly.

"It wasn't even _global!_"

"And _your_ pre-Avengers resume is so good?"

Tony sits back with a smug smirk, holding up a hand to count off his deeds, "Iron Monger. Whiplash. A hacked War Machine. Mandarin. The _real_ Mandarin. Shall I continue?"

Steve tries to interject placatingly, "Tony, you know there's no need to-"

"-Several near death experiences. Self-operation. _Twice_. Angry girlfriend. Dying girlfriend. Girlfriend on _fire_..."

Thor can't help nodding at the last one, mumbling "But Jane is _still_ better" under his breath before Captain America interrupts more forcefully this time.

"Stark! That's not the only thing that matters... and I'm pretty sure some of that stuff happened _after_ we defeated Loki as the Avengers. But at the end of the day, we're not getting any younger, right?"

"Oho, that's rich!" Tony retorts, reaching out and taking another swig of his smoothie in a huff, "This coming from an eighty year old Capsicle with a body fat percentage of what... point five percent!?"

"C'mon, man," Sam adds as well, "You make it sound like a lifelong thing. You know we're all only booked for the next four Avengers movies anyway..."

"_Hey_," Stark replies seriously, pointing at Falcon with a stern finger like a kid ratting out another kid to the teacher, "You haven't even been in an official Avengers movie yet, so you have _no right_ to break the fourth wall. Only The Author can do that. And maybe Stan Lee."

Rogers merely facepalms before motioning at Thor for some help, "Okay, aside from telling us about the origins of your race, you mentioned that you'd brought us a gift or something?"

**_Ding!_**

At that, Thor grins a mighty grin and turns towards the kitchen before replying, "Verily so, dear Captain! I have baked for thy selves a cake!"

As Thor now makes his way to the kitchen, his red cape flowing regally behind him, Tony deadpans before turning at his two companions and pointing at the direction the thunder god went, "And _that's_ why he won't be in the next Avengers movie. Anyway, Crunch! Bring us a round of whiskey!"

'_Yes, sir. At your orders._'

Steve and Sam merely blink at the smug billionaire as a hole opens in the table in front of them and comes up with a round of alcohol with the incredibly familiar British voice's reply.

"You... renamed Jarvis?" Steve asks incredulously as Tony dumps the kale smoothie in a nearby trash bin and puts in some ice cubes for the whiskey.

"Yeah, I kinda decided to shake things up after the whole Ultron incident. I originally renamed him First Lieutenant Crunch, but I decided to promote him since you barely come around anymore."

"It is perfect!" Thor shouts before coming out of the kitchen holding an upside-down pineapple cake in a tray with giant oven mitts, "Let us eat cake!"

At that, the algorithmic hologram of the Stark-built A.I. pops up in the middle of the room between all four men.

'_The drinks have been served. This is Captain Crunch reporting for any pending orders, Mister Stark._'

Steve deadpans at Tony, who merely returns an ear-to-ear mischievous smile.

* * *

**A/N #2:** _Eheheh… couldn't help myself. I know all of you have thought of a RWBY/Avengers cross-over too, don't lie ;) Anyway, remember to **Fave, Follow and Review** to show your support for the fic and to tell me what the future of the crossov-omakes should be! Last time? Every few chapters? Every chapter? I've got **lots** of crossovers I'd love to make, but I now leave it **your **very capable hands, dear readers! :) Until then, take care,_

**_And Happy Reading!_**


	13. Players and Pieces

_**Players and Pieces**_

* * *

The sunlight was bright. Brighter than what Blake would say she was comfortable with. Likely due to the terrain that offered plentiful space and little shade. The area the four teams had embarked on was sun-baked, to say the least; withered plant life and assorted weeds littered the terrain behind the polished chrome barrier which surrounded the scientific facility they now approached.

Lambent.

The facility itself didn't look like much - a large metal cylinder that rose up from the ground a few stories into the air, its slightly warped but otherwise polished walls surely fabricated to disguise the building's presence from the distance between the wavy heat waves rising from the ground surrounding it in the midday heat. But the catgirl knew better. That cylinder was only the tip of the iceberg; this sort of building likely spread out underground over several square miles where external factors like temperature and humidity could be easily regulated. This sticky, stagnant air above ground was not likely to be conducive to a successful scientific environment.

"Psst. Blake!"

The ravenette glanced quickly at her focused leader as the red hooded girl silently motioned for her to circle around the rear of the building. Nodding in assent, Blake went forward, following the pattern of silence that the eerily quiet landscape had already instilled upon the teens. It really wasn't so surprising that it was the case, it only took a single glance at the new craters littering the area within the laser systems like the dead weeds around them to cause a certain measure of unease. However, in Blake's case, she preferred the unease. After all, it wasn't enough to trigger _Gamer's Mind_, and it did well enough to keep her mind from drifting to last night's events between Yang and Jaune.

Surely the lovable idiot hadn't _actually_ thought it was a date, right?

"Wait," Blake mumbled to herself, suddenly going rigid at the thought, "Did I just use the word _lovable?_"

Surely, the powers above had also drugged her along with the introduction of her new semblance. However, as Blake circled the side of the building out of the sight of her peers, now shrouded in the shadow of the facility, she was surprised to see what looked like a single pole with a banner fluttering at the top in the distance. Blake's heart sank when she saw the white insignia on the black fabric.

"No... this attack, it wasn't by Grimm," she began as she readied to warn the others before stopping mid-step to slowly turn back at the fluttering banner.

_Fluttering?_

The curious catgirl took a step closer as she mumbled, "But there's no wind right now..."

Shifting Gambol Shroud onto her non-dominant hand but keeping it at the ready, Blake pulled up the _Skill List_ window with the appropriate command to go over her options in the event of an unexpected skirmish as she decided to investigate.

_**DING!**_

**[Skill List]**

**A Gamer's Mind**

**A Gamer's Body**

**Observe**

**Stealth**

**Sword Mastery**

**Blunt Weapon Mastery**

**Firearm Mastery**

**Kusarigama Mastery**

**Dual Wielding**

**Aura**

**Vecchian Recovery**

**Detect Bloodlust**

**Energy Bolt**

**Dust Proficiency**

**Sense Danger**

**Power Strike**

**Mana Arrow**

**Spinning Mana Arrow**

"Decent list I'm putting together so far," she mumbled at the pale blue window in front of her as she began walking towards the lone staff to investigate, "I suppose the next two things I'll have to focus on are my ranged offensive capabilities. After the close call against Mercury, it'd be wise to focus on Spinning Mana Arrow... and Dust Proficiency while I'm at it..."

The catgirl clicked at the most recently acquired skill at the bottom of the list, bringing up the appropriate window to view.

**_DING!_**

**[Spinning Mana Arrow (Active) LV3 - EXP: 87.31% / MP: 6] **

**A long-distance attack skill with increased piercing power by adding a strong spin to a mana arrow. Only possible for those talented in manipulating mana. Additional arrow provided every 5 levels. Automatic rapid fire unlocked at level 25. Infinite Spinning Mana Arrow unlocked at level 50.**

"Oh. That should be something to look forward to," Blake remarked with a small smirk before suddenly stopping in place and looking up around her.

Closing the windows in front of her, Blake narrowed her eyes at the pole after suddenly feeling the wind pick up. Turning around, her eyes widened at the fact that there was no sign of her friends and at the realization that the sudden change in weather could only mean one thing...

"Well at a time like this I'd normally say something like _'Look what the cat dragged in!'_, but seeing that in this case the phrase would be oddly redundant..."

The familiar voice immediately causing the ravenette's fists to tighten with anger until her knuckles went white, Blake turned to see none other than Roman Torchwick sitting at a table beside the pole which had seemingly appeared out of thin air, the man himself sitting calmly at the far end slumped on an elbow while casually smoking a cigar, "I figured curiosity would get the better of you... again. Oh, and I see you've come out of the faunus closet. I'm _so_ proud of you!~"

"How'd you break out of prison?" Blake snapped at the calm criminal who barely batted an eyelash at her as he puffed out a waft of smoke before flashing her a cocky grin, "How'd you even get _here?_"

"My oh my, what terrible manners I have!" he retorted playfully as he took his cane and shoved it under the table to push out a seat on its other side for her to sit on, "I completely forgot the part where I tell you about my incredible evil plan! Please sit, I'd love to explain _exactly_ how my multi-colored henchwoman broke me out of that airborne fortress that stands for all that is right and just and blah, blah, blah..."

Blake grimaced, gritting her teeth as she growled at the memory of the girl in question, "_Her_. That psychotic b-"

"-_Itchy_ little skidmark," Roman interrupted as he wiped off a small stain on his sleeve, "You have no idea how annoyingly dirty these tables get in an illusion barrier these days..."

"What... did you just say?"

Roman reveled in the heated turn of Blake's features from enraged to angrily surprised with a wicked grin before putting out the cigar on the tabletop and propping his face up on both hands over his elbows like a child, "Oho... little kitty forgot that she ain't the only one with hidden gifts, eh? How else did you think I became one of the best Dust robbers in all of Vale!?"

His grin grew even wider, and darker, as he added, "And how else do you think I'd be aware of the little stunt you pulled back at Beacon; you know, the one involving you practically wasting a certain associate of mine and leaving him in an accelerated illusion barrier to die?"

At that, Blake's expression suddenly softened from anger to mortification, the smug thief jumping on the opportunity to add with an accusatory whistle, "The bosses upstairs were certainly not happy with _that_ little plot twist, I'll tell you that. Oh well~"

"No," she retorted softly, shaking her head, "He's only been in there a little under eighteen hours... that's, that's plenty of time for us to come back and recover him."

"Wroo-oong~" Torchwick replied with a sing-song voice from his seat, "Tell me, Mittens, for how long did you feel that chill in your spine that told you that you were in an illusion barrier?"

Blake thought about it, shifting her weight uncertainly as she realized that she had indeed felt an uncomfortable sensation aside from the horrid embarrassment at having been caught with Jaune inside her dorm in a compromising state before replying, "In all, I'd say almost fifteen minutes at most. Surely he needed time to set up a barrier that size if he was to have us blown out the side of the building without causing any real damage."

Shaking his head, Roman smacked his lips at her before pointing at her accusingly, "Nope. _You_ little brats were only in there for _three_ minutes... to anyone else _outside_ the barrier. I'm surprised you haven't figured out that barriers exist that accelerate relative time; and here I thought you faking being a student would actually make you _smart_..."

"No, that's..."

"_Completely possible!_" Roman suddenly shouted with a darker countenance while slamming his open palm on the table, the sudden sound causing the girl to jump before he settled back down with a smirk and satisfied _humph_, "Which means _you've_ left him in there, without food and water might I add, for about four whole days now~"

"No..."

"Oh, yes," he added with an unsettling smile before raising his hands in mock placation, "But don't worry - I didn't like the little chump as much as you didn't; you kids actually did me a _favor_ by wasting him! Ha_HA!_ Hooo... the look on your face right now~"

He grinned at the catgirl clenching her teeth before she replied, "You motherf-"

"-_Father_ Ozzie? Has he received the confession of your sins yet?" Roman interrupted with fake sympathy, causing the young woman's eye to twitch.

Unable to restrain herself any longer with her fists now balled at her sides, she finally yelled, "JUST LET ME CURSE, YOU MORONIC DUMBA-"

"-_Aaas_ I was saying before," the criminal cut in a third time with glee, "This darker side of you just doesn't suit you, Blakey dearest... at least, not before learning just how deep you were in it with these furballs I'm cooped up with after our little skirmish at the docks. Now it sounds to me that the little kitty is relapsing to her old street-alley ways..."

"That's it!" Blake shouted, having completely lost her cool and cocking her weapon before pointing it at the unfazed antagonist's head, "_Shut UP!_"

"Hey hey, that's not a bad thing," he continued calmly as he settled back in his seat despite the gun pointed at his head, "As a matter of fact, that's why I'm serious about telling you about my 'evil' plan... remember?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, glaring daggers at the man who merely motioned at the seat across from him in turn, "Please sit. Your friend's lives _literally_ depend on it. And you better not even think of using one of those little _Mana_ tricks you've got up your sleeves... or else you might force me to use some of _mine_..."

After another long moment in the standstill, Blake finally lowered her weapon with a growl, yanked the seat back more and sat down in a huff.

"Heh, sometimes I actually forget that you twerps are still seventeen," Roman mumbled before adopting a more businesslike pose and folding his hands in front of himself on the table, "Anyway, down to the nitty-gritty. Like I mentioned, Mercury is dead. Reportedly paralyzed by _your_ nerve attack."

_I'm sure they're having a field day finding a satisfactory way to kill me over that,_ Blake mused sardonically.

"Contrary to what you may believe, they're actually _not_ planning to kill you over that," Roman added matter-of-factly before pulling out a fresh cigar, "Actually, they're pretty impressed. So, they had me knock on Lambent's door and lure you kiddies over here to offer you a job."

"A... job?"

"There you go, you catch on quick," the pumpkin-haired villain stated while nodding with not-so-subtle sarcasm, "You see, on _my_ side of Remnant, there's a particular use for people who can manipulate pure Mana like you do. A pretty hot commodity, so to speak..."

A raised brow from the ravenette before Roman quickly put his right hand over his heart and added, "Which is in _no_ way a reference to your physical appearance. The people I work for have a pretty strict no fraternization policy and stuff. I'd hate to start our future business venture together off on the wrong foot! Or would you say paw? You people confuse me..."

"What makes _you_ so sure I'd be willing to accept your offer?" Blake quipped sharply, her faunus ears flattening a bit on her head.

"The literal legion of misfits surrounding your friends as we speak, for starters," Roman noted simply with a small smile, "All hidden in illusion barriers just like this one! And we're not talking about the little humpty-dumpties you punks shoved off a wall at the docks a few months ago either... they're more, _your_ caliber. Maybe not as high-quality, but these boys certainly make up for the difference in quantity! Upper management thought it'd be a nice bargaining chip to add to our little deal."

"You keep referring to others above you as if it were some sort of business."

"And that we are!" Roman replied with a flourish of the hand, producing a small card for her to see, "And we deal with much more than just Dust. Goods, information, requests... even lives. On my side of Remnant, we are known simply as The Company, the world's greatest business enterprise!"

"Kind of a lack-luster name for such a glorious '_enterprise_,' don't you think?" Blake retorted flatly with a raised brow.

Roman didn't say a word, the same small smile plastered on his lips beginning to disturb the catgirl once more as he slid her the business card on the table without breaking eye contact, "_I_ think you're stalling..."

Blake spared a gander at the small white card on the table in front of her with an intricate holographic silver insignia of an office building surrounded by what looked like the outline of a bird's head before giving her short, firm reply.

"I refuse."

After a single pregnant moment of silence, Roman leaned back on his seat before slowly shaking his head, "Pity."

"Don't cry too hard over it."

Standing up with a single puff of smoke, Roman cleared his throat before pushing in his seat as Blake stood as well, "Right. Lucky for you, Kitty, _I've_ been instructed to let you leave to go help your friends, cuz those grunts will definitely be coming. Soon. And there's someone who'd just _love_ to see you in action firsthand."

"Oh I'm sure they'll get a show," Blake remarked with an undertone of threat in her voice before arming her weapon once more and pointing it at Roman, "But what's to stop me from ending you right now while I have the chance?"

"Heh, '_have the chance_.' Do you really?" the smooth criminal mocked with another puff of smoke, taking a long breath in as he pulled out his cigar in one hand and loosely leaned on his cane with the other before adopting an increasingly serious expression, "Go on, try it... Make. My. _Day_."

"..."

**_DING!_**

**[You've detected a strong bloodlust.]**

Blake's expression suddenly went blank at the sight of the notification as she whispered, "What?"

But promptly receiving the direction of danger coming not from the smug thief in front of her, but from _behind_, the ravenette quickly arched her back in a way only possible for a feline Faunus just as a slim blade stabbed through the space that her stomach had been occupying a second before. With a succession of quick twirls and gunshots, the catgirl then turned to counter the following volley of stabs from the now very visible Neo before the smaller girl leapt back in a flawless somersault to teleport by Roman's side. Taking the man in a side embrace, Neo smiled and used her free arm to wave at the fuming young woman with what looked more like a spirit-finger motion on her tiny hand.

"Well to be fair, only _I_ was instructed not to harm you," Roman mused aloud with an ill-hidden grin, "No one ever said anything about _her_..."

"You little, piece, of-" Blake began with a slow roll of every word, only to be unexpectedly interrupted a final time by the silent henchwoman herself as she placed a single finger over her own mouth.

"-_Shhh_..."

And in the moment Blake froze in shock at the first clearly audible sound from the girl whom she had assumed couldn't make any, the duo teleported away in a shower of broken glass before the small illusion barrier crumbled down around her as well.

"Blake? Oh, there you are! Didn't see you there for a second."

The catgirl turned to see Jaune approaching her quietly, his relieved smile doing little to calm her frayed nerves as he continued while turning around to head back, "Thought I'd come by and check if everything was okay. C'mon, lets reg-"

"Jaune."

Halted by the sudden feeling of her hand holding him back by the arm, the young blonde glanced at her trembling hand before looking back at her with a worried gaze, "Blake... everything okay?"

"We need to warn the others. I think things are about to get really dangerous here."

Taking note of her strained voice, Jaune simply nodded, his jaw setting before turning to head back to the others with her. Catching sight of the group that was beginning to close in on that looked to be the main entrance, just a square slab of steel on an otherwise seamless building, Jaune called out to the group, "Guys, we gotta talk!"

"_Can it_, freshmeat!" Coco barked back in a stern rebuke, quickly making her way over with her team in tow to his location several dozen feet away from the entrance before nodding over the other team leaders to approach as well. Once Ruby and Cardin arrived, she continued more softly, "What is it? And keep it down!"

Jaune turned back to give Blake an unsure glance, her quick nod giving him leeway to reply, "I went back there to see what was behind the complex... and I think Blake found something."

Ruby's eyes of curiosity, Cardin's eyes of disdain, and Coco's shades turned to face the catgirl at once as she replied, "There was an attack on this facility... But I no longer believe it was by _Grimm_."

The crimsonette was the first to ask as the remainder of the groups converged on their position, "Then what was it, Blake?"

But no chance to reply was given before a sudden sound of an old record playing caused all the students to tense up in surprise. Scratchy and full of static, the lone guitar melody seemed to match the dying landscape as the simple intro played out over the still air.

"What in the world?" was all Coco asked with a final pop of her bubble gum before an equally raspy man's voice was heard over the same music track.

_There iiis, a houuuse, in Vacuooo..._

_They caaall The Riiising Suuun..._

_And it's beeen the ruinnn of many aaa young boyyy..._

_And Ouuum, I knooow I'm ooone..._

And just as the verse finished, the sound of the music converged into one source: a scroll set on speakerphone propped on the shoulder of a man in a bowler hat who now came around the side of the building. Catching sight of the students, he stopped whistling along with the tune and shut off the song before lifting the hem of his hat above his pumpkin-colored hair with a wide grin.

"Oh? Well hello there, kids! Sorry, but I already have my own religion! Come back when the missus is home!"

"_Roman!_" Ruby growled as she unfurled Crescent Rose to embed its wickedly sharp tip on the ground in front of her pointed at the man.

"Everyone... stay close together," Blake tried to whisper, the blonde knight catching her words and silently motioning for the teams to stay grouped.

"C'mon, I swear I'll be good this time!" Torchwick continued amiably as the remaining students aimed their weapons at him, "Jail ready does change a man!"

However, Coco took a step forward as she let her purse drop-shift into her signature minigun, "Roman Torchwick. By the power vested in me from Beacon Academy and my wickedly fashionable handgun, you are under arrest for your crimes against kingdom and humanity. Surrender now or face immediate incapacitation... with _extreme_ prejudice."

"Hmm, big words, Honey," Roman replied with a courteous half nod, "I like that. But I'm afraid you're gonna need to save your ammo for what I've got coming..."

"Oh yeah? You and what army!" Ruby cut in before the second-year leader could speak, causing the criminal to facepalm in distaste.

"Guhhh... what does a villain have to do to get some decent _banter_ in this place!?"

However, in their own group, it was Fox who now spoke up quietly with growing consternation, his head snapping back and forth all over the place as he began, "Er... something, isn't right. I sense multi... _multiple_ heat signatures headed towards our location!"

"Where are they coming from?" Velvet asked with concern before Blake caught wind of it, too.

**_DING!_**

**[You sense an acute source of danger.]**

**_PING PING PING!_**

**[_Sense Danger_'s level has risen by 1.]**

**[_Sense Danger_'s level has risen by 1.]****  
**

**[_Sense Danger_'s level has risen by 1.]**

The catgirl gulped before replying.

"Everywhere."

"Well, I guess old clichés die hard after all, but it'll do," Roman compromised before turning up and giving the group his most dramatic flourish of his cane outwards, "_This army._"

**_CACACACRASSSHHHHH!_**

And like a wall of glass breaking around them, the group of students were suddenly mobbed by dozens upon dozens of White Fang soldiers clad in black and in their distinctive Grimm masks, each one yelling their animalistic war cries as Cardin was the first to bellow, "Alright boys, _FORM UP!_"

And following their lead, each team took their own particular form, team JNPR settling in first against the masses of oncoming insurgents as the two partners broke into pairs and Nora gleefully engaged Magnihild in grenade launcher form.

"Yay! This time I brought enough for _everybody!~_" she happily announced as her first projectile locked into place, "Here you go!"

_shoonk_... _**BOOM!**_

"Aaargh!"  
"Aaaaah!"  
"Whyyy!"

"Here comes another one!~"

_shoonk... **BOOM!**_

"Grk!"  
"Aieee!"  
"My leg!"

"Here comes another one!~"

_shoonk... **BOOM!**_

"Blargh!"  
"Gack!"  
"Noooo!"

Jaune took a glance to the side as he leveled his own small pack of Faunus with a debilitating shock attack to see Cardin's team taking a surprisingly gamer-like approach to their formation - a diamond formation where one fighter stayed ahead to tank while the two on either side shared the damage per second, the fourth fighter in the back reloading or providing cover fire until they were ready to switch.

"Alrighty, Dove," Cardin called out after clearing a small reprieve on their side with a literally earth-shattering mace-strike to the floor, "Time to sing these losers your favorite song! Ready? _Switch!_"

Leaping over the burly leader as he tumbled beneath, the perfectly coiffed blonde sheathed his weapon before straightening his pose, closing his eyes, taking a deep breath... and suddenly busting into a groove whilst running his hand through his hair.

"You've got me feeling emotions~ Higher than the heavens above...! You know the way to make me lose control~ When you're looking into my eyes...!"

"All set!" Russel yelled as he jumped back behind Dove to join Cardin.

Sky leveled a few more Faunus with his halberd before doing the same, "He's about to hit the sweet spot!"

"...You make me feel so hiiiiiIIIIIIIII**IIIIIG_HHHHHHH!_**"

The unexpectedly crisp inflection building and building and building, Jaune and a few other students could only watch as the student activated his semblance and caused visible sound waves to knock down everything in its path for several hundred feet, the more sound-sensitive Faunus immediately dropping unconscious on the spot... but only to be replaced by dozens more.

Neptune and Sun, on the other hand, had been switching in and out between the four teams in their overall square formation, providing cover fire or an extra set of weapons when necessary until Neptune pulled back from team JNPR's side to call Sun.

"Hey, monkeyturd!"

"_What_, bluetard!" the simian faunus shouted as he leapt back from RWBY's side where the four girls each stayed mostly on their own to take out the insurgents, Sun having taken advantage to squeeze between Yang and Blake to take out his own number of baddies.

"Stop trying to impress Blake and help Coco's team! Back up that bunny-girl, she looks like she might need it!"

But both Sun and Neptune glanced at team CFVY's side right on time to see a particularly hefty warthog-faunus crash through Yatsuhashi's defenses only to be leapt on and incapacitated by a forceful scissor kick takedown from Velvet so hard that when she flipped the large body through the air headfirst towards the floor, the head of the poor fighter went _into_ the ground upon impact.

"Nope. Nuh-uh. Bunny girl don't need no help."

"Nooo she don't."

Recovering quickly, Velvet rejoined her own team's formation to continue their defense against the oncoming waves. Seemingly disorganized, team CFVY had actually created the most efficient formation of all - Coco stood alone, mowing down waves of insurgents to part the incoming onslaught and funnel them to either side of her, one group meeting the impossibly fast twin blades of Fox while the other faced the combined might and metal of Velvet's and Yatsuhashi's lethal skill.

"Velv, love," Coco called out to her side just as the faunus-girl demolished another nameless assailant with a roundhouse kick to the face, "Remember what I said about saving up what you got in Pandora all semester?"

The second-year student looked down at the wooden box with the heart-shaped lock slung over her shoulder before looking back at her leader and nodding expectantly.

"I think it's about that time to open her up, don't you?"

Velvet turned to face another wave of White Fang soldiers with a smug grin as Yatsuhasi and Coco covered either side of her, the bunny-eared girl's eyes glowing an unnatural hazel as she began speaking out in an aura-warped voice.

"_Es ist groB. __Es ist klein! __Vox Gott Es Atlas!_"

With that, an amber aura set in over her body as if to reinforce every fiber of her body as the tiny lock on her box opened. Velvet and Coco traded a final nod of confirmation before she reached into the box and filled out a small object.

A single Topaz gem.

"Everybody get down!" the second-year shouted, every student turning to see what was happening and ducking as a wave of a dozen Gorilla-Faunus charged all four teams at once.

"_Drohnen!_"

_SSSSSSS-**kratkratkratkratKRAT!**_

And breaking apart into several pieces with a loud hiss, the fragments began to spin and dissolve into a multitude of bolt-like spears of energy that then flew through the air towards the oversized insurgents with the speedy cracks of thunder-like ferocity. Like bullets of light, each fragment hit its mark and each attacker went down without so much a grunt.

For a single moment, the battlefield stilled, every attacker reevaluating their targets before running in towards the powerful kickboxer with the rare magus-type Semblance. Even the ones on the other side of the group now furiously rushed the other three teams if only to get to Velvet. But the young woman herself, any past indication of insecurity or weakness long cast aside in the heated crux of battle, actually held and arm out to keep her teammates from reengaging the mass of insurgents as she pulled out a ruby from her box with the other.

Focusing her aural energy into the bright red jewel, she then held it out towards one full side of the oncoming attackers as it began to glow an ominous red.

"_Zerstoren!_"

Sparking into a single ray of red energy this time, the following whirlwind of heat blasted outward, charring and melting the land directly under it with a faint blue after-haze as it cast dozens of White Fang soldiers aside with varying degrees of serious burns.

Without any time to lose, Velvet then reached in for a third jewel, not even needing to look at it to sense its elemental affinity before guiding her Aura into it and directing herself to the other side of attackers.

"_Mold-veðr!_"

The pale green jewel quickly coalesced into pure energy, but instead of shooting out towards the insurgents, it went straight into the _ground_. A few soldiers paused, mistakenly thinking it had misfired... before with a single wink from the rabbit-faunus, an effect like a dozen Cardin mace-strikes compounded on the other side of the field, tearing up the entire landscape into jagged rock formations with a large quake which even sent rubble rolling over to an increasingly peeved Roman's feet by the building entrance.

Satisfied with her work, Velvet pulled out an amethyst gem as her teammates continued engaging the White Fang's dwindling numbers before turning and holding her arm out at Sun who was currently locked nunchucks to blades against a particularly aggressive Faunus who also sported a monkey tail.

"_Gandr Shot!_"

The blaster-like ray of orange energy made short work of the assailant, Sun throwing him off and giving her a relieved thumbs up.

"Thanks for the assist. I was kinda torn up inside with possibly breaking the whole _Ape no hurt Ape_ rule I grew up with."

But with the passage of the battle, the speed with which the quantity of attackers dwindled was only matched by the speed at which the students' ammunition dwindled as well, each team rotating to save ammo and place their members more specialized with close combat in trouble areas. In the midst of those switches, Jaune and Blake had ended up handling the same corner, each one handling oncoming attackers in their own way... one with ranged aura attacks and the other with well-placed kusarigama slashes with the occasional gunshot.

"Holding up alright?" the young leader finally asked as he cleared out a small group of soldiers with a razor wind slash to the legs.

"Not very. I'm without my stat boosts I have when fighting Grimm. Low on ammo as well... I'll need more to stash in the inventory, and I was very much hoping to save the Dust rounds Weiss gave me as a last resort."

"Funny thing you mention that- _watch your nine_," Jaune interrupted himself, Blake turning left and placing a ranged slash on a particularly bulky rhino-faunus which left the attacker dazed enough for Yang to knock him out of commission with a short volley of whistling gauntlet shots, "I just had a thought. Remember how me and Weiss noticed my fighting looks like Dust attacks? My great-great gramps back in the War was one of the pioneers in Dust-infusion... some people say he was the only one in his time who survived a Dust transfusion into his blood before it was banned due to its mortality rates!"

"Jaune, don't you think this topic of conversation can wait until a more convenient time!?" Blake retorted with an almost desperate tone as she flipped through the air to add extra speed to her successive swarm of slashes onto another wave of insurgents.

But Jaune knew the desperation was not of frustration, but of mental exhaustion... beads of sweat had begun rolling down her forehead as it surely was the case for them all.

"No! Don't you get it!? _Ignis Hastam!_" the blonde leader continued as he shot back an assailant with a plume of flame from his sword, "It's in the blood, Blake! I've got Dust in my _blood! _Somehow, it must stabilize it in a way that it doesn't run out like normal Dust does, and my weapons can amplify it through my Semblance! What I'm trying to say is - instead of using your _physical_ ammo, use the ammo you know doesn't run out!"

Pausing at the thought, Blake turned to give Jaune a quick nod before stepping back into the pocket between the teams, Neptune quickly filling in the gap and providing cover fire as she sheathed her bloody Gambol and focused her mana into her palm.

Looking up, she then focused on her first target as the pale blue energy now coalesced into a single spinning axis beside her.

"_Spinning Mana Arrow!_"

_**sssrak!**_

"_Spinning Mana Arrow!_"

**_sssrak!_**

"_Spinning Mana Arrow!_"

_**sssrak!**_

And with each command, an individual arrow targeted and hit a different White Fang soldier in the distance, incapacitating them as the energy tore through their limbs. But unsatisfied with the poor rate of fire, Blake only turned to direct herself at Jaune, "It's not fast enough! I need a better way to buff my skill!"

Turning to face her once before bashing a Faunus back with a shield-butt, Jaune turned to his partner quickly, "Pyr, I need a quick reprieve. Mind a little push?"

Nodding at her leader, the focused Mistrali squared her stance as Jaune stepped back to join the ravenette in the center, her crimson locks sticking to her grimy armor with her perspiration as her hand glowed and she thrust it forward towards the oncoming mob.

"_Nyah!_"

And with an irresistible invisible force, dozens of fighters were thrown back several yards by their armor and weapons as Jaune turned towards his fellow blonde.

"Sun! I heard your semblance involves something like making aura clones; how many of them can you make at once?"

The simian faunus pausing his onslaught with Cardin's team, switching back with Russel and giving the pair of students in the center a quick once over, he merely smirked.

"_Lots_."

"Can you aim them all at one soldier at a time without harming them?"

At that, Sun drew back in confusion before retorting, "Dude. That makes _no_ sense, why would I wanna do that?"

But Blake's eyes suddenly widened in realization, looking at Jaune with an impressed smile before turning her sights on Sun, "Jaune, you're a genius. Sun, I need your help to line up as many clones as possible with each of my shots..."

"If her Semblance allows for TKs," Jaune then continued with a smug smirk, "It'll help her skill get stronger much faster since your clones would be giving her EXP!"

"Wait, it works like that?" Sun asked incredulously, receiving a quick nod from the catgirl before scoffing in reply, "You gotta be kidding me. Your power is _so_ broken!"

"Broken? But I feel fine..."

"It's another gaming term," Jaune explained, placing his hand on her shoulder amiably with an understanding smile, "I'll explain later. But Sun, you're up. Aim for the guy at your five o'clock."

Turning accordingly, the Faunus-boy shrugged his shoulders before focusing on the target, quickly rolling his neck and loosening his shoulders before bringing his hands together in a prayer-like pose. And without a sound, a brief bright yellow glow surrounded him before spawning dozens of aural clones armed with several iterations of Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang towards the surprised foe among the attackers.

Giving her a quick nod, Jaune watched Blake then hold her hand out to the side, the enthralling energy forming at will as she aimed her shot.

"_Spinning Mana Arrow!_"

**_SSSSSSSSrak!_**

**_DING!_**

**[_Spinning Mana Arrow_'s level has risen by 1.]**

"It works!" Blake then exclaimed, turning to give Jaune a warm wide grin which he couldn't help but return in kind.

"Ummm, cool. Let's, you know, take out some more?" Sun interrupted after glancing back and forth between the teens with a faintly raised brow, Blake subtly shaking herself out of it and nodding in accord with Sun's statement as Jaune coughed to the side to hide a slight blush.

But just as they had predicted, it only took a few more repetitions before the following summoning of her skill wielded _two_ arrows at once. With a smug smirk at the two readied arrows in the air, Blake's hit rate logically doubled as the following launches through dual arcs of Sun-clones in the air racked up skill points.

However, neither of the teens had noticed the man in the bowler hat beside the building keenly observing the entire unfolding of events with a wicked grin.

"Well how 'bout that..."

Stepping out from beside the building, Roman now held out his cane as he cried out with an aura-projected voice, "Alright, mutts! _Heel!_"

To the students' surprise, and small measure of relief, the remaining few dozen fighters stopped a fair distance from the teams as Torchwick continued, "Well as much as I'd like to see you all fall one by one against these boys, I don't have all day. So if you don't mind, to speed up the process, I've invited a few of my... bulkier friends!"

And out from behind Lambent suddenly strode out a dozen Atlesian Paladins, much to the students dismay, each mech entirely armed and ready for combat.

"I... don't think I brought enough grenades for _those_," Nora noted with a slight cringe.

"I don't think any of us have enough ammo for those," Ruby added, knowing full well how much it had taken for her team to take down even _one_ of those armed constructions.

"Okay boys, new plan!" Roman declared as the students quickly loaded the remainder of their ammunition, "Take the faunus girl... the one with the _cat_ ears. Kill the rest. We'll call it a day!"

Jaune and Blake traded a glance, the ravenette immediately understanding the blonde as she noticed his fist gripping the hilt of Crocea Mors tighter before shaking her head.

"Jaune, don't. You'll be rendered unconscious, and there's no telling how many more soldiers he has ready to follow..."

Stopping mid-step, Jaune opened his mouth to say something when the mechs spring forward with multiple lasers focusing on their new targets. However, the students paused in shock when what felt like an earthquake caused everyone to lose their balance.

_**CRRRRACK!**_

And with the crumbling sounds of scorched earth, the Paladins were suddenly held in place by an unexpectedly healthy root system that sprouted upwards around their legs, Sun and Neptune the only ones in the group with ear-to-ear grins on their faces. There was no need to ask them why when a figure suddenly blasted up out of the rock just as a hail of jagged red energy rained down on the trapped mechs, causing them to explode in huge fireballs all over the soldiers as well.

A second figure clad in red and white landed by the first, a large young man with tanned skin and green hair who was promptly approached by the grateful Haven students.

"You made it!" Neptune cried out happily as the fourth member turned to face Roman with a statement too feminine to be a guy's yet too masculine to be a girl's.

"Yeah, right on time, too. Looked like this prick was about to have your balls handed to you."

"Well's that still to be seen, kid! ...Or whatever you are," Roman added with a rare raised brow in confusion before clapping his hands together in excitement, "This is exactly what I wanted! Beacon's best players... against mine!"

Sun scoffed at the villain before shouting, "So much for that, douchebag! Was that all you got!?"

With that, Roman raised both arms up by his sides with a malicious grin, the students going wide-eyed as cloudy red portals opened up all around the borders of Lambent to spill out scores of much more ominous versions of the White Fang soldiers they had been fighting. Neptune only deadpanned at his partner before smacking him up the back of the head.

"You just _had_ to ask."

"Uh, people. Several of these fighters have an unlocked Aura," Fox now stated from the midst of the main group with evident apprehension as the swarm of soldiers and dark mechs closed in on the students like locusts, "We're gonna need a plan on the pronto!"

But the student's turning to the second-year leader yielded no results, the fashionista momentarily frozen in place by the shock at the overwhelming numbers against them.

"Alright, that's it!" Jaune suddenly roared, taking Blake by the hand and practically dragging her to Coco's side as all eyes were riveted on him, "You heard that guy in the funny hat, they want Blake - which means we're setting up a perimeter! Blake and Coco, you two stay back to back; stick to long range and take out anything that comes at us from the air!"

He then turned to the remainders of teams CFVY and RWBY, pointing them each out in turn, "You three for a perimeter around Coco; Ruby, you three keep a perimeter around Blake! The six of you better stop anything from taking them out from the ground! Everyone else, cover your partner's back and form an outer perimeter around CFVY and RWBY; focus on anything with an Aura! As for the new guys..."

"Scarlet," the figure in red and white stated in introduction before pointing from underneath a white side cape to the tall muscled figure beside Sun and Neptune, "That's Sage. He don't talk much."

"Right. You two knock out any more robots that come our way!"

"Hmm, a guy with a take-charge attitude and a big sword?" Scarlet added with a suggestively raised brow, "I like it when they're feisty."

"_Hey!_" Yang shouted with what almost sounded like jealousy as her team formed their perimeter around Blake, her teammates giving her surprised glances before she added lamely, "That's uh... supposed to be, my line...?"

But with no more time to lose, everyone got in position, Cardin's and Jaune's team splitting into pairs along with Sun and Neptune as Sage took to the ground and Scarlet to the air. Thankfully, it didn't take long for the smell of Dustpowder from the firearms and the roars of attackers to snap Coco completely back into the moment, the minigun wielder turning her sights to the skies to take out any insurgents with flight-type Semblances from converging on their teams from above.

"Alright, Belladonna. I gotta reload in a sec, can you cover me?" Coco stated as she saw the magazine feeding her weapon finally running low.

"Yeah, I can get your twelve, and your three," Blake began in the midst of flying arrows before being interrupted by a pop-up window.

**_DING!_**

**[_Spinning Mana Arrow_'s level has risen by 1.]**

Blake couldn't help a smug smirk as the notification preceded the appearance of a _third_ spinning axis over her head, "And your nine..."

Coco idly glanced at the swirling energy above them both as her gun ran empty with a series of bullet-less _clicks_, "Good."

"_Spinning Mana Arrow!_"

_**sssrak!**_  
_**sssrak!**_  
_**sssrak!**_

"_Spinning Mana Arrow!_"

_**sssrak!**_  
_**sssrak!**_  
_**sssrak!**_

"_Spinning Mana Arrow!_"

_**sssrak!**_  
_**sssrak!**_  
_**sssrak!**_

The flurry of arrows flying through the air as Coco reloaded her weapon, Blake's improving aim and arrow strength was evident as each projectile passed through several assailants at a time, incapacitating them with the force of the blows. However, what made her smirk with what almost felt like pride was when she heard Weiss state in awe to their red-hooded leader, "I can't believe it... Arc's plan is actually holding up."

Several feet away, the scraggly Arc in question ducked back, lightly placing his hand on Pyrrha's bare shoulder and back to make her duck forward slightly as an arrow whizzed over their heads. The Mistrali enjoying the contact a little more than she'd care to admit out loud, she turned to face her leader after surveying the successful defense despite their low ammunition, "Jaune, the formation is working! I've already sent an emergency beacon to the Academy; we may be able to hold up our defense until then at this rate..."

However, her voice died down as she noticed that after his ducking motion, Jaune's attention had become increasingly focused on Lambent itself. Finally turning to see what Jaune was looking at, she heard him state grimly, "I'm not so sure about that. That guy looks like someone's talking into his ears... and I've honestly never seen him lose the color on his face like that before..."

And sure enough, Pyrrha caught sight of Roman just as he let his hand drop from his ear with a small tremble to snap his fingers into the air. In the blink of an eye, a girl decked in brown, pink and white appeared at his side only do disappear with him in her arms a second later.

"Jaune... something is about to go very, very wrong."

_**GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!**_

If the inhuman roar wasn't loud enough, the reverb of the shock itself was enough to cause everyone on the field to fall to the floor in pain. The after-effects of the supersonic roar like having a charge go off a few feet away, the students looked up to see a massive Grimm approaching Lambent.

"That is a lot of walking negativity approaching us," Yatsuhashi finally stated aloud, the students seeing the whites of his eyes for possibly the first time ever as the beast reared more and more pairs of crablike legs trailing behind it.

The Grimm was huge, more white armor than exposed black tissue, a sure sign for any Hunter with half a mind that this Grimm was clearly ancient. Every lower leg curved and sharpened to a point like a scythe, each of its dozens of steps resulting in the tips of the legs embedding themselves to the ground, the creature easily reared up to the height of thirty feet as a dozen legs on each side rose from the ground like a giant centipede. But what scared the students the most was that this time, instead of roaring as it had to make its presence known, it stayed still with animalistic clicks of its legs to survey the field beneath it.

This Grimm had gained the faculty of intelligence.

Now pointing their arms away from the students for a change, a small horde of Faunus began shooting at the Grimm, the giant creature not even taking a dent from the heavy firepower before making its way closer to the facility.

_ssssssssssss_...

_ssssssssssss..._  
_ssssssssssss..._  
_ssssssssssss..._

**_SSSSSSSSSS..._**

But slowly, surely, everyone present heard what at first was nearly unnoticeable hissing from the Laser-defense system gain additional lasers which began banding together into a giant ray of Dust-powered energy directed straight at the creature with a giant red beam. Once again rearing back, the massive beast held its ground against the increasing automated attack as the horde of Faunus and students within the perimeter watched in muted awe.

"Stupid Grimm, doesn't even know when to turn back," a lone White Fang soldier was heard in the distance with how silent the field had become other than the loud hissing of the defenses.

But as he watched, Jaune's eyes widened - and stomach sank - as he was the first to see the creature sprouting what looked like extra legs onto its foremost two limbs with sickening squelches, the creature holding out the awkward limbs in front of itself lamely against the impossibly hot beam as the extra limbs seemed to solidify into one. Finally, the students began regripping their weapons as the two new limbs solidified into giant curved blades with a near mirror-like finish... right in time to see the monstrous new ivory blades reflect the beam cleanly back onto the Laser-system generators.

"Wha- it found out where the generators were just by looking at the field!"

"That thing just grew out sickle arms like some kind of weapon!"

"_That's no juvenile Grimm!_"

The cacophony of statements and remarks growing into a mass of yelling and screaming, the army of White Fang soldiers turned their weapons to the Grimm as it easily crossed over the facility perimeter.

"Coco, do we engage?" Velvet asked worriedly as the beast continued toward the facility on all its legs, its previous form as to once having been a Deathstalker evident as it crawled forward like an arachnid that had grown dozens more segments and legs over time.

But as it took the blasts from the soldiers without flinching, the students' jaws dropped collectively as the creature suddenly reared up again with unexpected speed, swinging its claw with nearly imperceptible velocity to cleave dozens of insurgents in _half_. Taking the opportunity, Blake stepped forward, narrowing her eyes at the creature as she readied her weapons.

"_Observe_."

* * *

**Grimm Reaper LV87  
****HP: 385400 (386000) MP: 14900**

**A legendary Grimm full of hatred for humanity.  
****Attracted only by the most concentrated pockets of negativity, this creature has gained self-awareness throughout its centuries of life.  
A highly evolved form of Deathstalker, the Grimm Reaper has grown extra leg segments for extra offensive ability and to replace lost limbs or sections when necessary. ****Having lived through countless battles, its hardened carapace is invulnerable to all conventional weaponry. Its only known weak spot is the cranial joint on its minuscule head, a soft spot less than an inch in diameter.  
**

**Age: circa 1300 yrs.**

**Analyzing options against current Gamer level...**

**Recommendation: _DO NOT ENGAGE_ **

* * *

"That's well above the stats something its level should even _have_," Blake mumbled in silent surprise before turning to her peers with urgency, "Everyone, whatever you do, do _not_ engage that thing!"

"And why not?" Cardin retorted with a cocky grin as he idly smacked his mace on his free hand impatiently, "We're way better trained than a bunch of... _those_ guys. We'd be _legends_ if we managed to take that thing down!"

Shouting words of agreement at their leader, team CRDL and even Coco nodded in assent before Blake took another step forward and turned to the group as the Grimm whittled down the field of fighters in front of them.

"No! Can't you even _see_ that thing!? It's only weak spot is on its head, which is the size of a coin. A _coin! _Can anyone here even _make_ that shot!?"

Upon seeing Ruby raise her hand, the wound up catgirl was about to have another outburst when Ruby quickly elaborated, "Um, B-Blake? You _really _might wanna step back here now..."

**_grrrrrr_**...

The color on her face fading, Blake cautiously stepped towards the group before turning to see the giant beast already looming over them, its main claws and rows of of minor legs stained with the lifeblood of its most recent victims. Its clicking sounds resuming with what the students finally realized was sadistic glee, the beast began taking a few steps forward as the students fell in line and stepped back with weapons at the ready.

"Easy," Jaune softly intoned as the powerful feeling of helplessness began weighing down the legs of the students, "_Easy_..."

But of them all, Sky was the first to crack, his breath picking up in shallow huffs as he glanced to the building behind them and back at the beast, "Oh Monty, we're running out of room! _Guys we're running out of room!_"

And to their horror, Sky tripped back against a fallen soldier, the sudden movement attracting the Grimm's attention as its tiny eyes focused on its next prey and it lifted its razor-edged claw up for the killing strike...

**_POW_**

A single gunshot.

And in a second, the entire beast lurched, its claws suddenly scraping at its head to rid itself of the foreign object now lodged in its skull but to no avail. With sickening cracks and squelches of dark meat and ichor, the entire Grimm's body began bursting at the joints with an unnatural glow. And just when the students could've almost sworn that some sort of Aura was impossibly surrounding its body, the energy imploded the creature, the only things left being the ivory chitin that once comprised its armor which now freefell to the ground like a mass of dried toothpicks.

Having looked amongst each other and confirmed that neither of them had delivered the impossible shot, the students slowly turned behind them towards the entrance of the abandoned facility to see the still-smoking barrel of an ornate rust-colored musket.

A musket which slowly mecha-shifted with steampunk-style movements into a normal walking cane in the hands of an emotionless Headmaster.

"Worthless bug."

Partly amazed at the incredible feat and partly amazed at their first time hearing an ill-toned utterance from the serene man, the twenty students could only gape as Ozpin looked over each of them with only a short sigh.

"To begin, I would like to apologize for your troubles. We had received a tip earlier this week that Mister Torchwick had escaped from prison and was scouting the continent for facilities of unknown operations. Knowing that Lambent is one of Vytal's most well-guarded facilities... and best kept secrets... I arranged with Miss Goodwitch to have myself transported here hours before there were any signs of enemy contact. Now that Roman has been found and the identity and extent of the forces he controls discovered, Valean forces, in conjunction with Atlas military, will be better able to grasp the gravity of the situation and the extent of the resources which will be necessary in recapturing him. You have all done your academies and kingdoms a great service today."

There was brief silence before Russel finally sputtered out, "Y-You... you just shot a really scary Grimm in the _face_."

"Yes. I did."

"But that was no ordinary bullet," Pyrrha then observed, her trained eyes seemingly scouring the man's cane for any more answers to the myriad of questions now rushing through her mind, "Dust-powered ammunition could never cause such a reaction in a Grimm, no matter how old it became. It was almost as if... as if..."

"It had an Aura?" Ozpin finished, the eerie silence surrounding the group in the wide area of the dead and dying only becoming painfully noticeable in the stagnant moment of pause that followed, "Two very astute arguments, each explicable with the same reply..."

Reaching into the inner pocket of his coat, the silver-haired man produced a small black bullet for everyone to see which strangely enough didn't glint in the sunlight. In fact, the small object didn't have any luster at all.

"This bullet is not crafted using Dust; it was created using dust ground from the bone of my own rib many years ago after an old injury with ancient methods that have since been all but banned from Remnant due to their questionable methods of creation and use - the bonding of living human bone with the smoke of a dying Grimm."

Another pause to let the students process the information before he continued, "This process seals the human's Aura in a shell tougher than any Grimm's hide; a bullet which can pierce through anything as if it were tissue paper... including the hardiest of Hunter's Auras."

"And that's why it was banned," Ren echoed aloud as he looked at the Professor with a nearly reverent awe, "A bullet which could pierce through anything... there's no telling what it could do."

"Oh no, the effects were quite known, once upon a time," Ozpin continued as he returned the bullet to its place, "Against a Hunter, even a flesh wound from a Genesis Bullet, as they came to be known, would cause violent reactions within their active auras, causing the instant crippling of their natural energy and likely death. Against a Grimm, the reaction is eerily similar; contact with their soft tissues ignites a virulent reaction within the very dark energy that animates it... the stronger the target energy, the more violent the reaction. Thus the Aura-like glow around the Grimm upon its death."

"Genesis Bullet... Genesis, since it came from your rib like the Origin story of man," Yang recounted as if recalling a childhood tale, to which the man nodded.

"Precisely, Miss Xiao Long. Now, I'm sure you must all be tired; I've taken the liberty of ensuring that ADA was kept at a safe distance in light of this very unexpected development. It will be here shortly to take your teams back to-"

"Unexpected?" Blake suddenly began, drawing the students' attention to the unusually sharp tone she was using, "_Unexpected?_ I'm beginning to think it funny how many things have been happening all around Vale this year that you're so easily waving away as _unexpected_..."

"Now now, Miss Belladonna. As I said, I expected the escaped convict to try such an advance on a facility such as this; the activation of the emergency beacon only confirmed it, which is why I had a larger number of teams sent to investigate as I gathered information on his movements. I truly did not expect he could control the spatial anomaly which spawned the third and largest wave against you all..."

"Yeah... that was kinda weird," Yang echoed softly, a strange niggling at the back of her head returning as she thought about the eerily familiar red portals which had opened up at the time.

"Then why wait until the last possible second to intervene? Why watch as we all struggled to within a literal inch of our lives!?"

The Headmaster merely leveled a silent glare at the young woman, an awkward pause which surely would have been alleviated by a sip of coffee if the Professor had one, before replying, "Miss Belladonna, I understand you have your reasons to be upset. But if this were an actual mission, you wouldn't have been expecting any reprieve at all until the mission was accomplished, no matter the complications. Please rest assured that my actions, though sometimes misconstrued, are always for the greater good."

He then turned to look over the remaining students as he continued, "Be that as it may, I had full awareness of your situation and was ready to intervene in your favor, as you all can now see. During which, I was carefully observing each and every one of your styles and combat performance to note for improvements made throughout your time at Beacon. You can be sure that you've all passed this assignment wondrously and will be rewarded generously in the form of marks and rest periods at the academy."

As several students began mouthing a string of Yes's around Blake, the ravenette herself was momentarily distracted by the notification that popped up in front of her.

**_PING!_**

**[Quest Completed!]**

**Completion reward: Exp 5000000.**

**One step closer to discovering the identity of _The Red Queen._**

**_DING DING!_**

**[Your level has risen by 1.]**

**[Your level has risen by 1.]**

**[Your level has risen by 1.]**

'That makes no sense. I still have absolutely no indication as to who this Queen might even_ be_,' Blake mentally huffed before closing the window and turning up to call Ozpin's attention.

However, her action to speak was stopped by the sudden pressure on her arm, the catgirl turning to see the blonde knight giving her a tight-lipped benign smile.

"Later, Blake... We'll investigate more after we've gotten back and had a good rest."

She still wanted to speak, she knew she did... but unable to bring herself to butt heads with the well-intentioned leader, Blake let her heated anger ebb into a sympathetic warmth without a reply. However, as Jaune let his hand drop from her shoulder, the ravenette slightly raised that arm at the same time so she could catch his hand in hers, giving it a light squeeze to show her confirmation.

With a light smile, the blonde quipped to lighten the mood, "Remind me why we didn't end up on the same team again?"

Unable to hold back a grin, Blake didn't even notice team CRDL watching the entire exchange, the team members trading fist bumps with encouragement at Jaune's line while even Cardin with arms crossed couldn't help an impressed nod at the blonde's way with her. Further communication was interrupted, however, as ADA finally emerged over the horizon to land in a relatively body-free area near the group, the entrance of Lambent opening by some unknown means to permit the Headmaster reentry before Sun called out to him.

"So anyway, what's the big deal about this place, dude? You guys got some kind of super-sized world-ending Grimm down there or something?"

The remaining students hadn't thought much of it, preferring the promising refreshment of a well-deserved shower and warmth of a bed as the side door of ADA opened a few yards away from them, but their eyes slowly turned pair by pair towards the Professor in the vaguely suspicious moment of silence that followed just in time to see him reply with what almost looked like a ghost of a smirk.

"_Poppycock_."

With that, Ozpin turned and reentered the building to leave the students shrugging at each other in dismissal and beginning to enter the airship.

"Jaune, right?" Scarlet began at his side after he and Blake had separated to head towards their respective teams as the group approached the on-ramp, the blonde in question nodding before receiving a smirk from the Haven student, "I like you. Let's keep in touch, kay?"

The action happening right in front of her team caught Coco slightly off-guard, who finally leaned over to Velvet in curiosity.

"So is that Scarlet dude a chick or what?"

* * *

**A/N: **_Ahhh, finally some good ole melee action! Work and stuff have seriously limited my writing time, so expect less frequent updates. However, I'll be focusing solely on **TGG **due to this, so also expect at least biweekly updates to this fic in the meantime! That being said, I did kick-start a new story I'd been meaning to write for months now, a reboot of a modern day AU called **Remnants Reloaded**! It's a two-shot for now, but feel free to check it out while waiting for the next update, yeah?_

_Anyway, a few blurbs in regards to the truckloads of reviews I didn't get the chance to respond to since last chapter (told you a PM is usually better, but I'll be catching up with individual reviews for the next few days):_

_**Scarlett's gender. **Don't. Just don't. I've already decided, and I'm already gonna have a field day with all the arguments for and against each gender in the next chapter, so feel free to save your questions and comments until then. Hehe._

_**Oobleck.** Yes, I messed his speech up on purpose. It seemed to fit his style. No, I didn't mess up with the tea. I dunno which fanfic it was, but I remember a bout a year ago reading in someone's parody story Oobleck and Ozpin having a shouting match over tea being better than coffee respectively. Kinda solidified it for me since then. If it was clarified somewhere outside of canon that Oobleck drinks coffee, then that's a mistake I'm willing to live with :)_

_**"My leg!" **Yeah, the random grunt that gets Nora's grenade to the shin in the story? Totally a reference to the random guy in SpongeBob that shouts it all the time... it just felt so right at the moment :D One of the few Easter Eggs I'll be giving out for free heh_

_**Velvet. **According to Monty, she's a kickboxer. And a Mage. Is it so wrong that I drew some inspiration from a certain kickboxing Mage everyone knows and loves? You don't know her? **You should.** Her tsundere levels definitely trump Weiss' ;)_

_**The song.** No, not that one... **That** one. Emotions by Mariah Carey. Yep, I totally went there._

_**Lambent. **Hehe... might I have over-hyped it a bit? Maybe, but trust me, that is not the last we will see of **TGG's** favorite cross-over place. It will become_**_ very _**_important in the future._

_So yep, other than that, **TGG has just turned 5 months old!** Dang! And with it, it has just over 450 reviews, about 800 favorites, and nearly 925 follows along with 80,000+ views and 17 communities! I know that's not a lot compared to the heavy-hitters out there, but it's thanks to** you**, dear reader, that** TGG** is currently knocking on the door of **#15 **most followed in the genre, right up there (ironically) with The Red Queen! *cries a manly tear* **Can we get to 1,000 followers by six months!? **I think we** can**, let's do it! :D_

_And like I said, the action writing was so fun that the crossov-omake I've already written out for next chapter will feature a **crapload** of it! To be specific (but not too specific), 7 evil bosses Jaune must defeat in his quest for love!_

_First person to **guess the crossover **gets **one free request** \- shoutout, OC cameo, reference, etc! Or anything else that doesn't violate my anonymity... or morals :P_

_So while work takes me all over the place (and possibly **London** in the future, where I might even get the chance to meet **Coeur A'A**... though I'd probably have to pay like 1,000£ to his account to meet him haha [Just kidding Coeur, I love you man! I'll name my first kid after you if the wifey approves! All I have to do is get married first!]), I'll be sure to work out the next chapter, where there's more male bonding, female bonding, hetero bonding, and especially Knightshade bonding! **Bonding for everyone!** And a long awaited look into Blake's current stats. And everyone else's stats, for that matter. Oh, and not to mention that niggling in Yang's head? Maybe that, too. So until then, remember to **Fave, Follow, and Review** to show your support! Take care..._

_**And Happy Reading!**_


	14. Philia

_**Philia**_

* * *

"So... you hittin' that?"

"..."

Jaune turned his head, idly glancing from his position of standing cross-armed by the floor-to-ceiling glass pane on the side of the Titan-class Bullhead to see Cardin standing right beside him in a similar cross-armed pose. Upon seeing that the blonde actually had no idea what he was talking about, the burly student lifted a hand to make a repeated spanking motion with a suggestive smirk.

"You know... tappin' that Bellabooty?~"

"I'm... _right here_."

Both teens turned to see Blake completely hidden behind Cardin's large frame, the young woman glaring daggers at him through narrowed eyes as her cat ears began flattening on her head. But brushing off the glare, Cardin merely shrugged a shoulder with a nonchalant expression before continuing.

"Meh. Just sayin'. If you think about it, you two are actually weirdly compatible."

With that, he walked away with a snicker and that cocky strut Jaune had become used to seeing during his first semester, Blake shaking her head at him as she took a step forward to close the space between herself and the blonde.

"Wow. A four-syllable word. Must be a new record for him."

Unable to hold back a small chuckle, Jaune couldn't help noting, "The nickname _was_ pretty funny, though."

"Don't make me hit you."

Jaune raised his hands placatingly at her light glare, finally having built up a certain measure of immunity to it before adopting a smug expression and flexing his arm, "Alright, but I dunno, Blake... I'm not sure you could put a dent in all _this_ anymore."

Her jaw slackened a bit as her deadpan intensified, the result now enough to cause him to stop what he was doing with a nervous smirk.

"Seriously?"

"Maybe. We can always settle it over a sparring match someday," he replied with a small smile as both teens now stood next to the massive window pane, "Anyway... what's up?"

Blake merely took another step forward to stand beside him in front of the pane, not breaking eye contact with him before simply shaking her head with a half-smile, "Honestly, I think _someone's_ letting their little skirmish against our resident Ice Queen get to his head... but, I just wanted to talk."

"Talk? That's a little unlike you."

The catgirl scoffed, raising a brow at the young leader with a subtle smirk that promised follow-through on her threat, "I can always change my mind..."

"Well I wouldn't want you to," Jaune noted with a benign smile as he turned to face out the window at the same time, "So... what's on your mind?"

Juane watched the flowing landscape beneath him, scorched or otherwise barren land rolling beneath the shadow of the large aircraft before he noticed the pause slowly stretching out between him and Blake. Turning slowly to face the ravenette, he noticed her looking out the window as well with furrowed brows and her lips lightly pursed to the side in thought. It was then that he realized that even she wasn't immune to the occasional action of jumping into a conversation without actually thinking it through.

Wisely, the blonde knight opted to not point that out, instead masking his amusement with a light whistle as he put his hands in his pockets.

"Well, then... so I had that thing yesterday with Yang."

Unaware of the sharp breath the young woman let out beside him, Jaune turned to see a genuinely curious expression on her face as he continued, "She said she was making some dinner last night and invited me to eat with her. Honestly, I didn't even know she could cook, but I figured maybe it was something she usually did for your team or something, you know?"

Blake held back a scoff. Yang certainly _didn't_ do that kind of thing.

"...Which is why I was kinda surprised when she said you guys wouldn't be joining us, or anyone else from my team either," he continued slowly, looking up as if he were still trying to rationalize her decision, "But at least the food turned out alright. Reminded me of those little microwave TV dinners I used to make myself at home when I was little."

"So you... never figured out why she did that? At all?" Blake now asked, her curiosity veering a little bit closer to incredulity... albeit an inexplicably relieved one.

"Nah. I just chalked it up to a night hanging out. I figured she didn't have enough food to go around for everyone. I bet you guys were tired - you were passed out on the couch. With Ren and Nora, you can't have one without the other, and Nora would've eaten everything. And aside from their insane strength, Yang and Pyr have nothing in common. So that just left me."

Blake hummed at the young man's reasoning as her gaze drifted out the window. His ability to take apart a situation would actually be pretty impressive in any other case... had she not known that in _this_ case, it was so horribly _wrong_.

Nevertheless, she suddenly couldn't find it in herself to point that out either, content to leave it with a brief "Um... yeah."

"Yep. I guess that means she and I are friends now," Jaune added with a satisfied smile with having at the very least made a new friend while Blake returned a similar smile if only for the reason that her theory about him had been right all along. But now adopting a slightly more serious expression, he added, "Anyway. I was gonna ask, what happened back at Lambent? When Ozpin came out, we were all pretty darn grateful. But you... you were practically _snarling_."

Jaune watched, observing as best he could for any tell the catgirl might give about her current state of mind in regards to the matter and receiving none as she simply crossed her arms with a silent huff, "Nothing happened."

At that, the blonde turned his head to give her a light glare in defiance of the statement, Blake's face softening as she came to realize that he had apparently begun to pick up on her mannerisms as well. With a hint of a smirk, she merely stated, "You've got quite the intense gaze there, Jaune. I'd be inclined to say I'm starting to rub off on you."

He chuckled with a raised brow before retorting, "_Rub off on me_, huh? Coming from the girl who once questioned my usage of the word _Grind_, I'm not quite sure how to take that..."

Her face flushing a bit with surprise at his unexpected remark about their first conversation together, Blake remained cross-armed, bumping his shoulder with hers as she chided, "Oh hush, you."

The two stood there for a single serene moment, their shoulders no longer quite apart as they each looked over the vast terrain with the beginnings of forest land over the horizon together.

"...But really, though. What's up with you and Ozpin?"

Blake sighed, only then realizing how much she had enjoyed that single moment before admitting that he deserved to know what was going on as much as anyone else. As a matter of fact, a group chat was certainly becoming long overdue.

"I don't know," she began slowly, softly, "He's done so much for us all. He even let me into the school despite knowing about... _me_. Yet for all his ideals, for all his efforts... I still can't bring myself to trust him."

"I was actually thinking the same thing."

Turning up to face him with some surprise, Blake saw Jaune standing cross-armed as he had been when she had approached him and Cardin, the blonde sporting a particularly steely expression she couldn't quite say she'd ever seen on him before. Even in a fight.

"What do you mean?"

And just like that, the expression was gone; turning to face her again as well, Jaune elaborated with his usual demeanor, "Ozpin. This guy... he's not just some coffee-sipping pencil pusher you can step around to get stuff done. I _lied_ to get into Beacon, remember? But with everything that happened, with everything I _became_, I just can't help wondering... did I _really_ pull a fast one on him?"

"Jaune, there's no way he could've-"

"No no, just hear me out. It may sound crazy at first, but the more I talk, the more sense it'll make," he continued, his pensive expression beginning to return, "Semblance or not, I'm sure he wouldn't have been the only teacher to notice my transcripts didn't really match with... the rest of me... when I got here. But no one made a peep. Then there's Yang, who was still accepted even though she blew up an entire club _days_ before initiation judging by what she was telling me yesterday... which I'm pretty sure is a crime! Then we got Ruby, accepted two years early cuz she was able to actually run down that very same bowler hat guy, no less! Not to mention the high-profile people like Weiss and Pyrrha we got this year... And now _you're_ saying he let you in for reasons you don't get... "

He ran a hand down over his face, suddenly looking as tired as he surely felt. Blake made no effort to interrupt as he continued, "Look, I don't know if Ozpin's behind these things. Maybe he isn't. But the fact is, someone's out there who's been taking a _whole_ lot of time putting all these pieces together. You may think sometimes that your life has become little more than a game, Blake... but I'm getting the feeling that someone's been playing this game for a lot longer than we have. If Ozpin's in on it, then fine. But even if I don't trust him, it's not his side I'm worried about. I'm worried about the side he's playing _against_."

Blake observed him carefully, somewhere between worried and impressed that the young man she had once been sure couldn't swing a sword to save his life now stood like... a Hunter. But for better or for worse, at that moment, it simply made him seem so... _old_... so weary of the events going on around him.

"Is that what you'd been thinking about since we got back on the ship? You seemed to be fairly engrossed in your thoughts."

"Eh?" Jaune noted, back to normal as he suddenly became aware of his stance with a chuckle, "Oh, was I actually standing like this the whole time? I guess I didn't even realize I was doing it. Heh, you wouldn't believe it, but when I was real little, my dad would stand by this floor-to-ceiling window we had along a room of our house sometimes. He said he'd do it when he needed to 'think'... and whenever he would, me and my sisters would sneak into the room and try to copy his stance behind him where he wouldn't notice. Though I'm sure he did."

At that, Jaune once again adopted the wide cross-armed stance he had used before as he continued with an air of filial pride for his father, "_The Tobin Stance_, we would call it... since, you know, Tobin is my dad."

Blake giggled at his story and amusing expression, causing the leader to give her a goofy grin as he relaxed and finally admitted with a shaking head, "I think I told you once, but you really do have a nice laugh; it honestly never fails to give me the feeling like there's nothing wrong with the world... Okay, I'll admit that was a little cheesy."

Letting out a slow breath to release the pent up stress she had been accumulating over the past days, the catgirl did nothing to hide her faint blush at the blonde who was facing her as she leaned sideways onto his chest with a short huff, "No, that actually wasn't half bad. Since when did _your_ one-liners become decent?"

Jaune turned a little bit to accomodate the girl who was now leaning into him as he gingerly but eventually put an arm around her, pleasantly surprised that she made no motion to shrug it off as they both were looking out the large window once more, "Ever since I started hanging out with a _cool_ _cat_ like you."

"Aaand, there it went."

She looked up at the blonde as he turned to give her a scoff of mock-dejection, rolling her eyes at him with a smug smirk before resting her head on the nook between his chest and shoulder once more._ I... can certainly get used to this_, the thought idly crossed her mind before she let out a cat-like yawn in his warm embrace.

"Aww... you two could _so_ make the cover page for a Hallmark card right now."

Able to turn first, it was Jaune who saw the blue-haired student standing behind them with a knowing smirk on his face, "Honestly you two, I can already see the blonde cat-eared little munchkins all scampering around the place."

"It's not what it looks like," Jaune retorted amiably, not catching Blake blinking at him from his side as one of her feline ears drooped just a bit, "What's up?"

"I told Sun about your little Smash Bros challenge in the library, and we just uncovered a working X-Cube in the commons area with the game hardwired into the hard drive. Time to put those team skills to the test, brochacho!"

Trading a glance and a slight nod from the ravenette, Jaune turned to face Neptune with a devilish smirk, "You sure you're ready for Beacon to learn that Knightshade trumps Sea Monkey anyday?"

"Pfft, you _wish_, tiny dancer!" Neptune retorted with a light verbal jab at Jaune's line-dance with his team earlier that year before turning back to the commons area with a wave of dismissal, "So hurry up!"

But before being able to walk forward, Jaune took a deep breath before turning back to Blake.

"We'll have to tell them what you've seen soon, they need to know everything you do about what we're up against in case something like Lambent happens again. But I think we can all use some recovery time after that last fight, first."

The catgirl gave a small nod, her gaze seemingly having found a comfortable resting place on anything but him before replying, "I know."

But cocking his head to the side at her change in demeanor, Jaune looked at the spot they'd been standing together a few moments ago before glancing at her with a small smile.

"You know... for the record, I'm glad we got a few minutes to ourselves. It was nice," he began brightly, the ravenette looking up at him with a pleased smile before he offered her his hand... a gesture she happily accepted, "Now let's show those wannabes how it's done."

* * *

_**BLAM BLAM BLAM!**_

"Get rekd, newb!"

_**KABLAM! eeeBOOM!**_

"You stupid, stupid, camper! I've got something special for _your_ brand of fiend!"

_**POW POW! ...**_**_Reversal! CLACK!_**

"Wh-you call that a stealth attack!? What are you, an _ape?_"

"Hey... I resemble that remark..."

Sun, Jaune, and Neptune simply stared at the screen as the bright captions of HEADSHOT HEADSHOT HEADSHOT paraded through the top, the unexpectedly aggressive - and skilled - catgirl having been the only one speaking for the past few minutes until Sun had spoken up. Logically, his character was then the one to receive three successive gunshots to the face.

"Dude, where did she even _learn_ those terms?" Neptune asked in a whisper lest he incur the feline faunus-girl's wrath in real life.

"And how did she get so good!" Sun shouted as her Zelda character whipped him with the scope gun she had been carrying while he was recovering to the stage mid-flight right where his oversized DK couldn't dodge, essentially sending him off the screen, "And that was the one skill I had on her."

"Ironically, there's a passive gaming skill under my semblance," Blake stated matter-of-factly as she turned to face the teens now that she was the last girl standing after defeating her final opponent, adorably raising both hands and one cat ear, "Level Eleven."

Both Sun and Neptune let out a depressed huff in tandem, the blue-haired student facepalming as he admitted, "We were one of the best Smash teams in Haven... and we can't even handle Blake at level _eleven_."

"Well, if it's related to the game levels at all, the CPU does only go up to level _nine_," Jaune offered in condolence, only receiving sharp glares from each Havenite before backpedaling, "Hey now, don't look at me; I died first!"

Neptune rolled his eyes as he mumbled, "Well that's what you get for spamming with Link..."

"Well I guess that settles it then," Sun announced with a small epiphany, "This marks Blakey's crowning as a true gamer girl! Not like the fake sleazy ones at Haven that just call themselves that to attract attention while posting pics of themselves wearing nothing except little gaming controllers on their hoo-hahs... I'm talking _legit_ here. Blake is officially _The_ Gamer Girl!"

A moment of silence as the three students stared at the excited faunus-boy.

Eventually, Neptune was the first one to speak up, "Dude... I don't even wanna _know_ what tumblr accounts you stumbled across this time..."

"I don't understand the distinction," Blake added quaintly, totally unaware of the Havenite's meaning and Sun's impending blush, "Why say 'girl' when we're all just gamers in the end?"

"She identified with us gamers," Neptune stated, looking at Sun with a flat expression, "_Now_ it's official."

"Honestly, I still don't understand it. It's not as if it's so rare that a girl ever picks up a gaming remote..."

"Well it sure ain't often to see a _pretty_ girl, especially one as good-looking as _you_, pick up a remote," Sun stated with a wide smirk at Blake who merely deadpanned at him in response.

"Right. You've now complimented me at the expense of my entire _gender_."

Neptune cringed at the blatant shoot down of his partner's attempt at her good graces, shaking his head as he held out a hand to keep Sun from saying anything else, "Eesh. Gender conversations with an activist is waaay over our heads, dude. And sexism is a can of worms you do _not_ want to open..."

"Actually, I think that can's already been busted pretty wide open," Jaune suddenly remarked as muted shouting was heard around the corner of the hall leading into the commons area.

"_What_ did you just say?"

The four teens turned to see Cardin backpedaling into the large room with Scarlet walking right at him, Sage close behind her walking silently as the rest of team CRDL followed just as quietly to avoid notice in a small huddle. Sun and Neptune immediately rushed over at the sight of the clearly unhappy Havenite, Jaune and Blake trading shrugs as the rest of team RWBY rushed in from another entrance into the commons area behind them due to the noise.

"C'mon, can't take a little joke?" Cardin defended, though without his usual self-absorbed tone of voice under Scarlet's piercing gaze, "Seriously, it was just a goof!"

"What's going on?" Neptune asked as the two teams congregated near the center of the area, Sky being the first to look over with a shaky disposition.

"C-Cardin just asked what kind of genderless bathroom they got in Haven so that Scarlet doesn't freak out the students w-when going in..."

Both Sun and Neptune face-palmed in unison as Scarlet's face reddened again with fury toward the now nervous mace-wielder.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry, dude!" Cardin shouted in exasperation, finally resorting to apologies to get it over with, "It's obvious to tell that you're a guy just by looking at you, my bad!"

Sun and Neptune each added their other hands to their faces in double facepalms as Scarlet's murderous gaze told Cardin that he had just made a huge mistake.

"What, you assume I'm a male cuz I fight _dressed_ this way?" Scarlet mentioned, motioning at the red and white garb before glancing over everyone elce present, "I don't know about the rest of you, but that sounds _sexist_ to me! Don't that sound sexist, Sage?"

The tanned student merely nodded once with arms crossed as Scarlet turned to face him, no other reaction made before continuing the razor-thin onslaught, "It sure does! And do you _know_ what happened to the _last_ guy I decided was being sexist to me?"

"..."

"_Do you!?_"

"N-No!" Cardin stammered, quickly raising his hands placatingly at Scarlet as if to try and ease the tension. But now sporting a smug smirk, Scarlet indulged in whittling down the larger boy's confidence with a menacing smirk before casting a sideways glare at the monkey-faunus.

"Why don't ya tell 'em... _Sun_."

Team RWBY traded unsure glances before watching the blonde Havenite mumble with an embarrassed blush on his features, "He... got billy-jacked and hog-tied to a barge headed to Vale..."

"That's _right!_ Billy-jacked and hog-tied to a barge headed to Vale!" Scarlet exclaimed in triumph, team RWBY suddenly putting two and two together and repressing the immediate urge to laugh as team CRDL merely whimpered in unison.

"But c'mon, it's so hard to tell, though!" Russel weakly defended for his endangered leader as Sky nodded as well.

"Yeah, and you guys look like some boy band from Oum-knows-where, too. So it's impossible to guess!"

"So _what?_" Scarlet seethed, glaring at the rest of the three teens with a heated gaze that could likely defeat Blake's with sheer fury alone, "You assume I'm a guy on just _that?_ Or that I don't got a rack like that blonde biker chick over there!?"

Jaune turned to glance at Yang, who merely wiggled he brow at him with a smirk as the rest of her team groaned with a mix of exasperation, annoyance, and just a tinge of envy. More noticeable with some than with others. Like Weiss.

"Seriously, guys," Neptune remarked towards the burly leader and then to his team, "Can't you see she's not built like a dude? And it's not like guys are the only ones who can shave their heads like you with the mohawk there."

"My name's Russe-"

"_Shut up_. You don't matter," Scarlet cut in before turning to look at Cardin with narrowed eyes, "So. You got any more stupid arguments you wanna make based on just my looks!?"

And to the rest of team SSSN's and team RWBY's disbelief, the cocky leader actually had the nerve to open his mouth.

"Yeah. Even for a girl, your hips are barely wider than-"

But he didn't get to finish. Quickly crossing her hand through the air, what almost looked like a broom sped through the commons area into Scarlet's grasp from where she had entered before sweeping it up to deliver a painfully audible upwards swing into Cardin's crotch in a single motion. Needless to say, the large student collapsed onto the ground like a sack of potatoes, crying out with an understandably feminine squeal as he gripped his package. The rest of team CRDL, Jaune, and even some of team RWBY made a sharp intake of breath in sympathy of the guy as Scarlet stood over him.

"You think that's _pain?_ It is NOT pain, you understand!? What you are experiencing is MILD DISCOMFORT," she continued as she gripped the end of her broom towards the teary-eyed leader's face on the ground, the metallic pole stationary as the ends that looked like white strands of hay came together to form the pearly white handle of a shotgun in her back fist, "I'll show you _pain_ next time you come at me like that, _got it!?_"

"Uh huh," was all he could eke out with an emphatic nod before Coco stepped into the room.

"What's going on here," the fashionista demanded before taking a single glance around the room and gathering the situation with a smirk.

"Hm. I guess the boys are just getting to know each other, then."

At that, Scarlet set her jaw at the smug second-year student and stepped forward, only stopped by the unexpectedly steely glare coming from over the girl's glasses as she tilted her head at her, "This is a fight you don't wanna start, sister. You do _not_ wanna know what happens when these shades come off."

Letting out a single huff as Sage placed a hand on her shoulder, Scarlet decided to step back as the rest of team CFVY entered the area. Stopping in front of Sage, Yatsuhashi leveled a silent glare at the young man who returned an equally intense silent glare in kind. Standing back, everyone in the room watched as the two large fighters stared at each other for a few seconds more before letting out a short grunt at about the same time, then reaching out their arms to shake hands with small smiles.

"What, just happened?" Velvet asked unsurely, somewhat surprised to see Yats warm up to someone he'd barely met so easily, a feat she hadn't seen in the two years of being his partner. However, Scarlet, equally surprised but otherwise unaffected, merely raised a brow before giving her reply.

"I think Sage just might've made a new friend."

"Alright, ladies... and _Scarlet_. Gather 'round, we got stuff to discuss!" Coco now began in the center of the commons area, casually waving everyone over as teams RWBY, CRDL, CFVY, SSSN and Jaune found seats along the couches surrounding the sunken amphitheater-like miniature dip in the center of the area. Scarlet, however, sent a death glare at the leader as she took her seat.

"Whore."

Coco simply returned a sweet smile at the peeved Havenite... before idly flipping her off.

At that moment, the rest of team JNPR came in and paused at the unexpected sight out of context before Jaune waved them over to the large semi-circular couch directly across from the second-year leader that he had taken with team RWBY.

Whereas Ren took the corner and Nora sat net to him as expected by hopping over the back of the couch and landing next to him with a giggle, Pyrrha took the more proper route around the side to seat herself between the hammer maiden and her leader with a quick warm smile. It was a snug fit, all eight students sitting lap to lap, but they didn't really mind it. On the straight 4-person couch to their left sat team SSSN while on the couch to their right sat team CFVY. Team CRDL had taken a smaller 3 person couch behind Coco, the four students trying to squeeze in until Cardin simply decided on booting Sky to the floor.

"So... what exactly are we here for?" Sun began as everyone had settled into their seats.

Coco granted him a short nod before turning her attention to everyone in the room, "Alright firsties, this year you're learning about Grimm, history and combat. Next year wont be much different... aside from the fact that they start teaching you how Hunters actually tackle missions."

A few blank stares, causing the leader to sigh and shake her head.

"In _other_ words, my team and I figured we should get everyone together and go over what we did well, what we didn't do well, and the intel we gathered to be more effective in the future... considering that this is a chance to do things as they're done after we graduate and that it was much like our first Grimm extermination mission we were sent on earlier this year," she continued, a few eyes catching Velvet's brief shiver on the seat where she sat before the meeting forewoman looked in the direction of team JNPR, "To begin, we figured we should start by thanking Arc here for that last minute plan back there... it most likely saved every one of our lives."

Every gaze turned towards the surprised blonde, Jaune blushing a bit under the combined attention with a short chuckle as Ruby and Yang sent him similarly wide grins that would make their relation apparent if for nothing else, Weiss sent him a neutral but approving nod, and Blake gave him a pleased smile from his side.

"Aww shucks, guys. I... It was thanks to everyone here that the idea held up. We all kept each other safe."

"Under _your_ direction, Jaune," Pyrrha noted with a warm smile and nothing short of pride as she nudged him from his other side, his gaze turning back to his team, "Your improvement is now becoming clearer than ever."

Jaune paused for only a second as Nora popped her hear over Pyrrha's shoulder with a wide grin and two thumbs up in what seemed like expectation, something he normally would've brushed off had it not been for even Ren peering over with an inquisitive expression and a ghost of a smile.

But paying little more mind to the situation, Jaune simply gave his partner a grin as he replied, "It's thanks to you guys, really. I'm honestly glad that you're my teammate and friends, all of you."

Jaune didn't notice Nora slump back into her seat at the mention of the word _friend_, the ginger-haired girl turning to her partner with a tight-lipped expression and shaking her head with a low tone, "I dunno, Renny. That dog just ain't gonna hunt."

The stoic student himself sighed, shrugging at the missed opportunity between the leader and the young woman who was clearly infatuated with him.

"And then there was you, Belladonna," Coco now continued, the sudden shift of attention towards the catgirl causing her to shrink back in her seat a bit, "If it weren't for your warning to gather us together before things went south, we could've been in real trouble. We wanted to thank you for that."

Blake gave a small nod in acknowledgment before speaking up, "Thank you... it was nothing."

However, a scoff from the couch that the rest of CFVY occupied brought their attention to its auburn team member, "I wouldn't know about _that_."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yang quipped in reply with a small scowl, ready to defend her partner if necessary. To that, Fox immediately, strangely enough, zeroed in on Yang, sitting forward on his seat and leaning out before making a knife hand motion towards Blake.

"_She_... is currently the _furthest_ thing from 'nothing' in this room," he began sharply without breaking 'eye contact' with the blonde, "You see, my Semblance lets me see more than... well, what my eyes can't. I see people's natural energy, like little flickers of light that outline their bodies. In our case, our Auras. The stronger the aura, the brighter the light, get it?"

A brief nod from a few of the students before Fox continued.

"It's convenient because I've learned to tell what class Semblance someone has by the brightness of their aura. For example," Fox paused, motioning towards everyone in the room, "No one's Semblance class here is above B, except Coco, the two new kids that saved us at Lambent, and _you_, with that super-saiyan aura you got there. _Your_ Semblances are A Class..."

Another knife-hand at Blake.

"But _her_ aura's so bright I can't even look at her straight! That clearly makes her _S_ Class, which means that she's _so_ strong, it's _stupid!_"

"Fox... use your words, babe," Coco drawled in contrast to the student's heightened state of excitement.

He huffed before reiterating, "I mean, that girl is _so_ strong, that she makes strong people look... _not_ strong!"

Coco evidently rolled her eyes behind her shades before Yatsuhashi shifted forward in his seat, maintaining perfect posture as he spoke up.

"What mister Alistair-san wishes to say is, there are no students currently attending the academy with a Shinin rank Semblance," Yats stated before taking a moment to sigh, a method Blake could tell he used to collect his thoughts for a tricky proposition before he continued, "What we were wishing to clarify... if you would graciously enlighten us... is whether you know why Torchwick-menba targeted you at Lambent. Could it have been for your ability?"

Blake let the possible replies roll over a few times in her mind, immediately surmising that this was not the best place to divulge her past history with her mutual connection between herself and the mascara-wearing thief.

"I wouldn't know. This ability isn't exactly something I've broadcasted previously... much less _had_ for very long, either."

"What do you mean?" Velvet now asked, an ear up in curiosity as the other remained droopy before Blake replied uncomfortably.

"Um... my semblance, it sort of, _changed_ recently."

"What!? That's impossible!" Cardin piped up from his location across the room, his team and even a few others beginning to make similar declarations when the room went silent at the sound of the green-haired Havenite's voice.

"It very much isn't."

It wasn't the volume of the voice that immediately caught everyone's attention. In fact, it was somewhat quiet. But it held a smooth, deep tone that if one wasn't paying attention, one would likely confuse with the humming of the aircraft engines.

And there was also the evident distinction of the accent... a more, _proper_ English.

Now well-aware that he had the undivided attention of everyone in the room, Sage sat at the edge of his seat as well, crossing his well-defined arms over his knees as he calmly began, "Me, I grew up in an island off the Mistrali mainland named Britton, yeah? It wosn't the rosiest of childhoods, as I was placed in a reformat'ry fer troubled boys in the mainland early on..."

A small shudder from Cardin and his team at the all-too-familiar words before Sage elaborated, "Not by choice. Or even within bloody reason. But I spent me days there anyways, keepin' to meself mostly... readin'. Read about Hunters, read about Aura. Unlocked me own in about a year."

"That's... very impressive," Pyrrha noted aloud, clearly impressed at the young man's feat, "Most aura-users never learn to unlock an aura until much later in life, much less their own!"

But retaining his serene air and evident humility, Sage granted her only a brief nod and minute smile of gratitude before replying, "Even then, it wosn't much. I'd always been one to observe, to try and figure out what made the sorry blokes I went to class with tick. Naturally, my Semblance wos the ability to heighten my eyesight well beyond even avian-faunus limits. That is, until one day I saw a lit'le scuffle goin on, a couple of knob-ends tryin' to play a prank on some new chap with a vial of Dust packed into a home-made grenade... little did those shoddy buggers know that tryin' to mix the compounds that they did would ignite a lethal explosion. Long story short, I pushed the kid into a dirt hole before it went off, gettin' in quick enough to dodge most of the explosion."

"Most?" Ruby echoed, now clutching her red cloak around herself like a child would whilst hearing a scary story.

"Yes, luv. _Most_. Dust-charged dirt and debris flew into me face, putting me into an infirmary bed for two whole weeks. Changed me eye color, too. Docs say if it weren't fer me aura, I'd be brown bread... er, _dead,_ in other words. But when I came to, I quickly realized it had changed me... My sight wosn't quite wot it used to be. But me and the earth... we'd become one. It accepted me, let me control it. And gave me the ability to manipulate anything that grows out of it as well."

Yatsuhashi nodded at the youth, more in respect than impressed unlike everyone else in the room, before asking, "And the youth you rescued, Sage-shi. Did he survive without injury?"

For the first time, Sage cracked what almost looked like a mischievous smirk as he stretched back and glanced at his partner, "Ah well... I'd say _she_ made it out mostly alright. Gets easily wound up, tho."

"Have you _seen_ my Semblance?" Scarlet retorted with a hearty chuckle, tapping her broom-like weapon propped in front of her as everyone in the room put two and two together, "I'm _literally_ a flying witch. I blame the time I spent in a school meant for _guys_. Besides, it was thanks to me we got out of that dump and into Haven in the first place."

"Of course. I taught you how to unlock it."

"Hmph," Weiss began, her head cocked to the side with her arms crossed in a deliberating pose from her seat, "The ability to control land itself. Must make you feel invincible."

Blake might've thought that the heiress was resorting to gleaning information on a possible rival in the Vytal tournament, but before she could remark anything out loud, Sage continued placidly.

"Hardly, Lady Schnee."

The direct reference by name catching the young woman off-guard, Sage continued, "I noticed the emblem on your coat. I'd know the Schnee logo anywhere, considerin' it was printed on the sides of the soddin' thing that nearly took me life," but not letting her become too dejected by the name, added quickly, "And on the sides of the equipment the docs used to save it."

"Thing is, there are a lot of trade-offs," Neptune offered, waiting for Sage to nod in approval for him to explain since he already knew the large young man wasn't used to speaking so much, "His Semblance relies solely on land-combat, which makes it much less effective in the air or on the water. Thankfully, Scar takes care of anything airborne pretty easily, and _I_ can take over when it comes to water."

Weiss snickered, looking at the leader of their team, "Oh? What's Wukong good for, then?"

She was somewhat surprised to hear Scarlet interject with a sigh at their leader, "As much as I hate to admit it, he's strong enough in hand-to-hand combat to take us all out. Without my trusty Hikou Houki, of course. But overall, he's helped the three of us use martial arts at a decent Hunter level. I guess it's why we all get along... similar histories growin' up."

"So you don't use a weapon?" Ruby asked the yellow-eyed druid, morbid curiosity getting to her after hearing the Havenite's story to which he cast a knowing glance at his partner.

"Once sec," Scarlet drawled before reaching out her hand, a red glow surrounding it before a short staff-like object flew into the room and into her hand.

Handing it over to Sage, the young man shot his arm forward before quickly yanking it back, the object flicking out on both ends to tighten a string tied at each of them into a very large curved bow. Needless to say, what now stood proudly near the center of the room as an ornate wood-like archer's bow with intricate jade engravings left the young weapons lover much to gawk at.

"Saw him once shoot an arrow of compacted stone and fire Dust to blow up a bunker _underneath_ another bunker," Scarlet remarked with a smug smirk, Sage rolling his eyes as she added, "I call it the Ex-Wife."

"_Miyae_," he corrected before retracting the bow and stashing it in the lining of his coat.

"So back to the whole Semblance deal," Sun now asked, having been unexpectedly silent the entire conversation with a pensive expression until now, "I get that a Semblance is the whole 'manifestation of your inner essence' and junk, like it was with Scar and even Sage after the explosion, but what I'm still trying to figure out is how Blake's Semblance changed her life into a living _video game_ of all things..."

"A _video game?_" Fox echoed incredulously, his jaw slack at the information.

"That's... actually a good question," Ren mumbled, gaining the catgirl's attention with her sensitive hearing and finding himself pressed to provide his two cents after a moment to clear his throat first, "Our Semblances may be the manifestation of our souls, but I've learned that a part of it also has to do with the circumstances surrounding their unlocking. Do you... recall what you were thinking at the time of the change?"

Blake blinked, her neutral reaction at being presented with a question she knew would be taxing on her mind, but ponder she did. Her lips inevitably pursing to the side in thought, her brows began to furrow as she spoke.

"To be honest... I'm not quite sure _when_ the change was made. I was able to use my original Semblance up until I was attacked by an Alpha," the ravenette's breath hitched as she slowly began coming to a realization, her eyes widening just a bit as they focused on nothing in particular in the center of the floor, "All I remember was the pain. The prospect of having Gambol, the sole remaining object in my life that I'd kept through my every trial aside from the bow I once wore, in ruins. And... of how little time I had left while the Dust remaining in Gambol began to turn volatile..."

She paused to give herself reprieve at the difficult memory by sheepishly scratching the back of her neck, a knack that Yang instantly recognized as a mannerism she didn't have before, and a short sigh before she concluded with an almost shamed finality, "I remember thinking how ironic and pointless it all was... our eternal fight against endless forces we couldn't understand, my lifelong battle against prejudice and hate, and ultimately myself... how it all amounted to little more than a game. Ironic, considering that I was promptly launched into a gaming shack by the Dust explosion."

The room stayed silent for a moment as the words sunk in, a trickle of deeper emotion exposed from the usually guarded Huntress-in-training, before a worried Yang finally spoke up.

"That's... pretty dark, Blake."

A wry half-smile formed on the catgirl's face at the irony as she lifted her head a bit to meet the brawler's gaze, "In a world like this? ...Darkness is as prevalent as the shadows themselves. It's no different than the number of men we likely killed at Lambent trying to defend ourselves."

"That's, not true," Ruby retorted, the pitch in her voice just a tad enough higher than normal for nearly everyone to see that the words had hit home, "We... We did all we could to not hurt them..."

Yang took the younger girl's head in her arm in a sisterly act of consolation, brushing her hair back with gentle fingers as she replied in a softer tone than most had heard her use before, "You're right, Rubes. You're right... we did all we could."

"Four hundred ninety seven," Fox noted matter-of-factly before continuing with a hand to his chin in thought, "Aside from the few hundred signatures that the Grimm took out, we actually did a good job not neutralizing so many-"

He didn't finish due to a quick nudge to the side from Velvet, seemingly sensing the girl's glare and letting his voice die down subsequently.

Blake adjusted herself deeper into her seat as others in the room let their heads drop in dejection under the invisible weight that had just set in, leaving her hands back into the cucshion to prop herself up after having shared some of her ever-present raincloud with everyone in the room... that is, until she felt a warm hand envelop hers with a light squeeze in the space of couch between them where no one could see.

"And that's where I'll have to politely disagree with you, Blake."

The ravenette, along with most everyone else in the room, turned their attention to the blonde knight as he continued with an unexpectedly disarming smile, "Doesn't matter where you are; where there's light, there will always be shadow. But Hunters don't take an oath against the darkness in the world, they take it to uphold the light. In the end... I think it has something to do with understanding _why_ you have to do it, even if it doesn't make sense; understanding _who_ you have to keep it for, even when there isn't hope. If at least one person in the world never loses that hope, then there's still a chance for everyone else. Even against hordes of Grimm, even against all the world's evils... I'll take those odds."

"Even the thickest of shadows can be dispelled with a single light," Yats finished with a smile in agreement before Coco nodded at the first-year leader with an impressed smirk.

"Not bad, Arc... you sure you'd never consider teaching in the future? If it ain't assisting Goodwitch with combat, I'd say you'd make a decent Professor for some kind of motivational courses or somethin'..."

Jaune simply shook his head as he stated, "I get a feeling that kind of life would be a little too hectic for me."

So with a shrug, the cocoa gunner looked around the room at the tension relieved occupants before announcing, "Alright, then. That settles that. I say we should get some rest before the bullhead reaches Beacon... Oum knows what kinda IMF paperwork will be waiting for us to fill out before we can actually get to relax."

With a few grunts in agreement, team CRDL was the first to stand and take their leave before team SSSN did the same, Jaune's hand finally separating from Blake's as Neptune walked over to hug Weiss and JNPR began to stand as well.

Now the only two left on the couch as Ruby had gotten up to see if she could catch sight of Sage's Miyae before he left, Yang leaned over to Blake while keeping an eye on the knight who momentarily had his back to them as he spoke to his team.

"You think Saber-boy might have it in him to go for a second date tonight? It wouldn't be coming on as desperate, right?"

"You do realize I'm probably the least experienced person to be speaking about these things in this room aside from your sister, right," Blake noted quietly with a deadpan before adding, "And besides, he's under the impression that you both were only hanging out. If anything, he considers you as much a friend as he does Pyrrha now."

The fact-drop causing her jaw to drop in shock, Yang replied in a strained whisper, "WHAT? You mean I put myself in the friend zone with Pyrrha without even knowing!? Agh, I _should've_ known! Maybe I can-"

"Hey Yang, um, you kind if I chat with Blake for a bit?"

The blonde bomber paused mid-sentence as she realized her subject in question was looking right at them, her face adopting a slightly questioning look as his team left to their rooms and Weiss turned to look at what was going on as well after Neptune left.

"It's, about Semblance stuff," he added meekly with a nervous smile at the increasing attention from the fiery blonde and the icy heiress who simply looked back and forth between Jaune and Blake.

"_Wait_. Belladonna, you're saying that even _after_ the first day you learned of your new Semblance, you continued training it with _Arc?_" she began with pointed incredulity, "Don't take it the wrong way, but you must be _joking_-"

"III... don't think either of them are," Yang noted slowly as she got up as she looked from the nervous knight to the silent catgirl blushing in her seat with her gaze averted from them, "I mean, I thought they might've been at first. But I think he and Blakey have been doin their thing for a while now, and that might not change anytime soon..."

Weiss threw her arms up in exasperation as the brawler took her by the shoulder to turn her around, the blonde herself letting her gaze linger on the catgirl for a second more before letting out a calm sigh and a small smile, "Should've seen it comin'. Guess this time, the joke's on me."

Blake made eye contact with her partner as she spoke those words, somewhat confused as to the realization Yang had apparently come to before the brawler turned away and Ruby approached her and Weiss.

"Hey guys, what'd I miss?"

"They _actually_ went to the woods slaughtering Grimm by the dozens! Agh!" Weiss yelled unexpectedly as she stomped out of the room, not making eye contact with anyone as she dismissed the entire scene with a wave and leaving the crimsonette to look at her sister in question.

"Jauney and Blakey are gonna have a little chat. We should probably leave them to some alone time."

But trying to peer over her sister's shoulders at the last two people in the commons area, Ruby seemed very interested, to the point of worry, as Yang had to resort to dragging her out by the arm as she tried to get a good look.

"Whaddaya mean? Alone? Chat about what? Yaaaaang..."

And just like that, the two teens were left in the area, Jaune plopping down on the roomy couch next to Blake as he let out a tired chuckle at the scene.

"What was _that_ all about?"

Shrugging off Yang's strange change of heart, Blake turned to glance at him with a small smirk, "Noting out of the ordinary, really."

"Eh. Okay."

"So, you wanted to talk?" Blake now asked, getting more comfortable on the couch by placing her legs up on the cushion behind herself and leaning towards the back cushions as she glanced at the knight, Jaune merely settling back in his seat as he looked forward before turning to meet her gaze.

"Well first thing, I'm glad you shared what you did. You're taking pretty big steps there in being more open with others, and it'll only help you in the long run."

But Blake thought about it, shrugging a shoulder idly as she reasoned aloud, "That may be true... but sometimes, I'm not so sure where these changes are coming from. Me... or _Gamer's Mind_."

"Whaaa?" Jaune stated in jest as he casually nudged her in the arm with his, "It's your _semblance_, Blake. It's still 'you,' just... maybe a slightly different side of you, that's all..."

But his smile fading a bit as the catgirl merely kept her gave on the couch in thought, he continued, "Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about. Usually in a video game, it's a good idea to check your stats after a boss. You know, to gauge progress and make adjustments to future gameplans."

At that, the ravenette looked up with a quiet hum of curiosity, letting the suggestion take her out of her train of thought as she noted, "That... might actually not be a bad idea."

"Cool, then lets get to it!" Jaune declared contentedly, shifting a knee up to the couch as he turned to face Blake with a grin, "So, we still in the same party or something?"

"I'm not sure, I think it might reset after sleeping or something, I'd have to check," she mused aloud as she brought up a window and began looking through it to find the information she was looking for, "No. Seems like we're not in the same party anymore. _Create Party_."

**_PING!_**

**_PING!_**

**[You've created a party.]**

**[What would you like to name your party?]**

"Knightshade. Of course."

**_PING!_**

**[Would you like _Knightshade Of Course _to be your party name?]**

**Confirm (_Y_) - Refuse (_N_)**

Blake stared at the window, facepalming as she hit the _Refuse_ option and muttered, "Right. I'd forgotten about that."

**_PING!_**

**[What would you like to name your party?]**

"Knightshade."

**_PING!_**

**[Would you like _Knightshade _to be your party name?]**

**Confirm (_Y_) - Refuse (_N_)**

The tap preceded the command, "Invite to party."

**_PING!_**

"Got it."

Blake watched as Jaune now began pulling up windows and menus with speed she still couldn't quite place, surprised since he'd only been at the wheel of the interface only a few times. Then again, she attributed his familiarity with the system with the doubtless similarities that The Gamer interface had with actual RPGs. And just like that, a larger blue window popped up in between the both of then, startling the young woman.

**_PING!_**

**[Split-Screen Disabled!]**

"What'd you do?" she asked quickly, glancing back and forth between the grinning blonde and the window, "I've never seen one that big before!"

He looked at her and shrugged before motioning at the pale blue notification hovering over the edge of the couch between them that was the size of a small TV screen.

"Well, sometimes when you play co-op, the game will split the player's screens so they don't get confused about what they're doing. That includes different pop-ups that each player might get depending on what they're doing. That's a good thing, most times. Sometimes, the players are working together, and having double everything popping up gets annoying," Jaune paused as he reiterated his gesture to the window, "So... _this_."

"Ah."

"Yep."

"So what now?"

Jaune simply sat back next to Blake, the two teens separated by a mere couple inches as he crossed his arms at her, "Let's check out your progress."

"You mean, I-?"

"Yep."

Blake looked over to the large window, pointing at the Close option which she logically wouldn't be able to dismiss since she didn't bring it up, "And I just click-?"

"Yep."

She blinked at him before turning to close the oversized window. She couldn't help a small smirk when it obeyed her tactile command, "Okay._ Status Window_."

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv25 _(Nxt lvl: 13.78%)_  
Race: Faunus  
Title: _Apprentice Grimm Hunter_**

**...**

**HP: 1875/1875  
****MP: 1000/1000**

**...**

**STR: - 20 **_**+4 +**_

**VIT: - 32 _+6.4 +_**

**DEX: - 21 _+4.2 +_**

**INT: - 22 +**

**WIS: - 7 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 67  
****Money: 6,500,300 Lien**

* * *

Blake looked over her stats with a growing sense of pride, her progress having been made evident in a matter of weeks since the Breach incident. As a matter of fact, she had become increasingly certain that it would've taken another semester to get to where she was currently at in physical ability. Sure, her sensory abilities, aside from sensing bloodlust and danger in general, were about the same as they were previously, if not still a bit under-par, but it was certainly a large step forward overall. And it was nice to have it placed in such an organized numerical format for her to look at and adjust as necessary.

Her musing was interrupted by an impressed whistle, the ravenette turning to see the blonde leaning a little forward in his seat until their shoulders were barely touching, neither of them paying the proximity any mind as he pointed out the stats on the top.

"Wow. Looks like you've unlocked more info about yourself. Nothin' you don't already know, but who knows what else it'll tell you as you level up! As for the rest, looks like you've got plenty of options with your character build from here..."

Blake hummed in thought, turning to the intrigued leader next to her and giving her decision, "Then it's probably best I review my skillset to see what kind of fighter class I want to go for after all this."

"_Now_ you're thinking like a Gamer!" Jaune exclaimed with a snap of his fingers, nodding at the window with a smile, "Alright, let's see what you got."

"_Skill List_."

_**DING!**_

**[Skill List]**

**A Gamer's Mind**

**A Gamer's Body**

**Observe**

**Stealth**

**Sword Mastery**

**Blunt Weapon Mastery**

**Firearm Mastery**

**Kusarigama Mastery**

**Dual Wielding Mastery**

**Aura**

**Vecchian Recovery**

**Detect Bloodlust**

**Energy Bolt**

**Spiraling Energy Bolt**

**Dust Proficiency**

**Sense Danger**

**Power Strike**

**Mana Arrow**

**Spinning Mana Arrow**

"Hmm, of all these things, lots of your active skills seemed spec'd for physical combat," Jaune noted as he scanned through the new window, "But after seeing your potential for ranged combat at Lambent..."

"Why would I want to focus on killing Grimm up close when I can spam them instead?" Blake finished with a start, checking the levels of her passive mastery skills one by one.

**_DING!_**

**[Sword Mastery (Passive) LV7 - EXP: 37.91%]**

**Freely handle a sword to slice through opponents.  
****15% increase in attack damage with swords.**

"That's kinda _meh_, to be honest."

"It's enough to one-hit a Beowulf. Hush."

**_DING!_**

**[Firearm Mastery (Passive) LV9 - EXP: 12.45%]**

**Strike targets from a distance using firearms.  
****49% accuracy with targets within 275m.  
****98% accuracy with targets within 55m.**

"Cool. Fifty-five meters is a lot, right?"

"Seriously?"

**_DING!_**

**[Kusarigama Mastery (Passive) LV12 - EXP: 69.03%]**

**Easily slice through targets at range using a kusarigama.  
****66% increase in hit rate.  
****10% increase in attack damage.**

"That's not too bad."

"Are you really going to comment on everything you see?"

**_DING!_**

**[Dual Wielding (Passive) LV14 - EXP: 89.58%]**

**Use dual wielded weaponry to inflict swift attacks on the target.  
****50% increase in attack speed.  
****25% decrease in attack damage.**

"Pfft. You call that a buff?"

"It's highly effective!" Blake cried out with slight exasperation before smacking Jaune on the arm with all 24 points of strength she had... which didn't even make him budge.

"_You wipe that smirk off your face_."

Jaune let out a long, satisfied groan as his ear to ear cheesy grin of confidence didn't lessen, turning back to the screen and pointing at the skill list without regard to the seething young woman beside him, "Look. Truth is, your physical skills are really good, if not better than where you were at earlier this year. So I think for now, you can look at ranged attacks, focusing on Aura and Mana-based skills... and then maybe that Dust Proficiency one down the line."

"..."

Jaune turned at the sound of the silence to see Blake still glaring at him, quickly cracking a disarming smile before the girl huffed with a small smirk of her own and turned to face the window, "I suppose you're right... Dork. It's actually what I was thinking back at Lambent. I should probably look at Aura first to see how far I've come with it..."

And selecting the appropriate option, the long window popped up in front of them both.

**_DING!_**

**[Aura (Passive/Active) LV3 - EXP: 47.31% MP: 20]**

**Aura - the manifestation of our soul.  
****A necessary energy source for all Hunters, being a powerful ally in battle which can be used in conjunction with that of others to defeat mighty foes.  
****_Passive_ attributes can be used for a wide range of abilities depending on skill level.  
****_Active_ attributes activate upon sensing danger.**

**PASSIVE:  
****Unlocks _Dust Proficiency_ skill.  
****Unlocks _Sense Danger_ skill.  
****Unlocks Multi-Player support.  
****STR increase 20%.  
****VIT increase 20%.  
****DEX increase 20%.**

**ACTIVE:  
****HP regeneration 100 per minute.  
****MP regeneration additional 500%.  
****Mana ****reset time reduced 50%.  
****STR increase additional 25%.  
****VIT increase additional 25%.  
****DEX increase additional 25%.**

"Whoa. Those look like some pretty serious buffs for only level _three_," Jaune drawled in disbelief, the catgirl next to him slowly nodding with a slack jaw, "This'll be really important to grind as much as possible... which I figure is done whenever you use your Semblance or mana attacks."

"So... grind Spinning Mana Arrows for range, work Spiraling Energy Bolt as a finisher, and add on Dust Proficiency down the line all to buff Aura?"

Jaune thought about it for a second before nodding, "That sounds like a pretty solid plan. You accounted for MP rates yet?"

A momentary blank stare before Blake shrugged and reached for the Skill List.

**_DING!_**

**[Spinning Mana Arrow (Active) LV19 - EXP: 09.24% / MP: 2] **

**A long-distance attack skill with increased piercing power by adding a strong spin to a mana arrow. Only possible for those talented in manipulating mana.  
Additional arrow provided every 5 levels.  
Automatic rapid fire unlocked at level 25.  
Infinite Spinning Mana Arrow unlocked at level 50.**

"Only _two MP!?_" Jaune all but shouted in a restrained statement as the window popped up in front of them, "But all that damage you caused at Lambent! Man, and here I was almost thinking _my_ Semblance was OP..."

"OP?"

"Overpowered. And I still think it could be. But yours really _is_ broken."

A raised brow from the ravenette before Jaune elaborated, "Broken, as in cheap. A skill that breaks the system when exploited."

"Oh?" Blake noted as the idea sunk in her mind, trickling down into a smug smirk as she regarded the skill with a new light, "Well then, that's certainly good to know. Lets see... I currently have one MP regen per minute; with active Aura, it becomes six per minute. If each set costs me two MP, and I try to keep half my MP saved for physical attacks... that's a total of two hundred fifty launches of a grand total of _seven hundred fifty_ arrows..."

"Over a total of less than five _minutes_, if it's taking two MP per second," Jaune noted flatly, crashing the girl's budding excitement with a single phrase, "That's kinda terrible. I'd figure out another way to up your MP regen to sustain that kind of skill, especially once you unlock auto-fire... Uh, Blake? You okay?"

Jaune didn't expect the saddened mewl that barely escaped the dejected girl's lips, but he certainly couldn't admit that it wasn't endearing.

"Well maybe that's what you should focus on... MP," Jaune slowly suggested, hoping to cheer up the young woman. Yet, he found himself swallowed by pity as well when she turned her large amber eyes to look into his.

"But..._ how?_"

Setting his jaw as he was no longer able to bear the catgirl's dashed hopes, Jaune looked down with a hand to his chin to think... and think... and-

"Got it!" he exclaimed happily, closing the opened windows until only the Status Window remained, "I remember noticing that INT helped increase the strength of mana attacks... so maybe there's a way to get it to increase MP, too!"

But before he could reach over to tap the INT arrows to max out INT, Blake stopped his hand with hers, a look of doubt in her eyes, "But what if it doesn't work? How would we know that we're not blowing these stat points for good? What if..."

"Uhh..."

Jaune didn't try and reply, instead following Blake's line of sight to a small box that had popped up over WIS, which was where she had currently stopped Jaune's hand hovering over just above pressing range.

**[WISDOM]**

**_"Intelligence in practice - Wisdom is it's own virtue" - Unknown_  
Effect: Mana regeneration increased by 2 per minute every 5 points.**  
**Effect: _Aura Meld_ unlocked after 25 points.**

"Well. That settles that."

Blake didn't hesitate to mash the arrow herself until satisfied.

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv25 _(Nxt lvl: 13.78%)_  
Race: Faunus  
Title: _Apprentice Grimm Hunter_**

**...**

**HP: 1875/1875  
****MP: 1000/1000**

**...**

**STR: - 20 **_**+4 +**_

**VIT: - 32 _+6.4 +_**

**DEX: - 21 _+4.2 +_**

**INT: - 22 +**

**WIS: - 25 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 39  
****Money: 6,500,300 Lien**

* * *

**_PING!_**

**[Since your WIS passed 25, you have unlocked _Aura Meld_.]**

**_DING!_**

**[Aura Meld (Active) Lv MAX / MP: 150]**

**The ability to blend the auras of party members into a single MP pool.  
Causes Semblance meshing with 12.5% chance of random explosion upon activation.  
****Uses 150 MP per second. **

"_Well_," Jaune finally stated with an impressed expression, "The glitch and insanely high MP use are definitely downers... but that's still definitely a game-changer. Might wanna keep that one in mind."

"It's my first active skill at MAX level... does that mean there's no chance for the glitch rate and MP drain to change?"

"Pretty much," the knight replied before furrowing his brows in curiosity, "So, you only put in enough points to hit twenty-five on WIS? What about the rest?"

Blake gave him a small smirk before closing out the window and returning to the Status Window, "To test out a theory. In your defense, I do think you're right about INT. But I'm thinking that if I add enough to hit a milestone like I did with WIS..."

And as Jaune watched as Blake then added on points to her stats, his eyes went wide as INT passed 50 and her whole form began to glow blue with strangely audible classic RPG fanfare.

**_PING!_**

**[Since your INT passed 50, you have gained_ Level II__ Mana_.]**

**_PING!_**

**[MP has been permanently increased by 1000.]**

"Whoa. Good theory," Jaune drawled before looking at the young woman being infused with the ethereal energy, "Blake? Blake!"

He caught the limp catgirl before she slipped off the couch, pulling her back to lean back on the cushion next to him. She almost seemed like in a dream-like state, her eyes slowly fluttering open before giving him a dreary half-smile, "That... was definitely different. I think I now know what you felt like when your Semblance was unlocked..."

"Like the tiny room you were living in inside your mind suddenly got blown out into a mansion?" Jaune stated as he took one last look at her Status Window...

* * *

**Name: Blake Belladonna  
****Class: The Gamer  
****Level: Lv25 _(Nxt lvl: 13.78%)_  
Race: Faunus  
Title: _Apprentice Grimm Hunter_**

**...**

**HP: 1875/1875  
****MP: 2000/2000**

**...**

**STR: - 20 **_**+4 +**_

**VIT: - 32 _+6.4 +_**

**DEX: - 21 _+4.2 +_**

**INT: - 50 +**

**WIS: - 25 +**

**LUK: - 4 +**

**...**

**Point: 11  
****Money: 6,500,300 Lien**

* * *

"...Yeah, I believe it."

He closed the window, helping the ravenette up to her feet slowly to a standing position, "You okay?"

Blake slowly nodded, looking up at him with a slightly embarrassed tight-lipped smile before replying, "I'm okay. Sorry about that."

"Nah, you're fine. I actually passed out after I unlocked my Semblance, remember?" Jaune noted with a small chuckle to ease her tension before looking around and scratching the back of his neck, "But I guess the best thing for the both us right about now is some rest. If you can make it to your room on your own, I guess I can be on my wa-"

His words were stifled as a sudden pressure on his chest momentarily took his breath away. Looking down, Jaune saw the lightly frazzled jet-black head of hair splayed across his chest at the extremely unexpected embrace, unable to even return the motion before Blake shuffled back quickly with her hands glued to her sides and her gaze to the floor.

Even the knight could tell that it was to hide her blush.

"Look, Blake..." he began, ready to tell her that she hadn't had to go out of her way to show him any form of affection.

"It's to thank you. For everything... this, isn't something I'd have been able to accomplish without you," she interrupted, looking up at him with an unsure expression as the corner of her wry smile quivered at the tip before taking a deep breath and smiling at him in earnest, "And for the record, I'm glad we got a few minutes to ourselves. It was nice."

Jaune smiled back at her choice of words after another moment of silence between the two, nodding his head and starting to turn as he gave her a final wave, "It was. Rest well, Blake."

The two teens departed to their respective rooms, twin grins fighting their way onto their faces...

While a blonde monkey-faunus whose room was adjacent to the commons area took his ear from the wall with a long, long sigh.

* * *

**_Clack, clack-click, clack, clack-click, clack..._**

The resounding sounds of footsteps on polished marble echoed through the impossibly long white hallway as the periodic click of a metal cane coincided with every other one. The low hum of the running electricity through the fluorescent lights could be heard as the figure walked through, a perfect balance of harmony in its own simple tune until it was interrupted by the muted beeping of a short-range communicator.

Holding up what looked like a tablet-sized version of the scroll, the figure looked into the screen... and immediately, the footsteps stopped.

_**FROM:** Qrow_

_**TO:** Ozpin (BOLG)_

_**MSG:** RETURN TO BEACON IMMEDIATELY._

_QUEEN IS IN PLAY._

The once metronomic clicking was replaced a sharp crescendo of crashing ceramic as coffee began to spread across the immaculate white hallway floor, the reader rereading the message a second and third time before uttering a single word.

"No..."

* * *

**A/N:** _Welp, at least the chapter ended well..._

_No. No it didn't. Things are about to go south fast in several ways..._

_On a brighter note, you guys did extremely well with guessing the crossover! You readers are on pointe with references and everything... nice to know we share more than just the RWBY fandom! Speaking of multiple fandoms, the first reader to guess the crossover and win a request of choice (cameo, shoutout, he/she still hasn't decided) is **NocturnalWarrior**! Congrats!_

_And without further ado, the **crossov-omake!**_

* * *

**Crossov-omake #2:_ Scott Pilgrim vs. The World_**

* * *

"So... you hittin' that?"

"..."

Jaune turned his head, idly glancing from his position of standing cross-armed by the floor-to-ceiling glass pane on the side of the Titan-class Bullhead to see Cardin standing right beside him in a similar cross-armed pose. Upon seeing that the blonde actually had no idea what he was talking about, the burly student lifted a hand to make a repeated spanking motion with a suggestive smirk.

"You know... tappin' that Bellabooty?~"

Jaune couldn't help but chuckle at the nickname, but still somewhat unaware of what Cardin was talking about, he was about to reply when a strange and oddly catchy RPG-like song began blaring through the airship speakers.

"Jeez, can someone turn it down?" the knight began as he winced at the loud music, looking down only to see the entire area was empty, "Uh... Cardin? You there? Hey, where is everybody?"

Every time Jaune turned as the music played on, it seemed more and more of the ship was missing until nothing remained but a solid brown room.

"What in the flying fu-"

_**Ba-da-dada-da-daaaaaaam!**_

**[Due to setting off a rare non-descript protagonist flag, you have unlocked the first Gamer side-story: _Jaune Arc vs. The World!_]**

**Play side story?**

_**YES - NO**_

"Didn't even realize I was still linked to Blake's Semblance. Meh. I don't see why not..."

But the moment Jaune tapped on the _YES_ without regard to where he physically was, he yelped as he was suddenly transported to what looked like a large empty nightclub.

"Glad to see you accepted the offer."

The knight turned to see the catgirl standing a feet away from him, a small smile adorning her flawless visage as she held both hands clasped in front of her in a stance that was both shy and endearing. Her hair had been done up into a loose ponytail as a few wavy locks framed the sides of her face. Her Faunus ears were clearly visible to the young Arc as was the ravishing sapphire dress she currently wore that looked mostly like the one she'd worn to the school dance that year.

"Blake... you look, _incredible_..."

The smile spread just a little wider as a hint of pink could be seen in her cheeks, the girl glancing up at the enraptured teen with an alluring chuckle, "Well, a girl's gotta look good for when she asks a guy to dance..."

Jaune's jaw went slack as he quickly looked around the platform they were both on, an almost glassy tiled dance floor set up over the wide expanse of the club around them, "Wait... so, this is a side game? Are you really you? What is this place?"

But ignoring his answers as would usually be the case in an RPG when asking superfluous questions, Blake merely looked down coyly before noting, "...The only thing is, this club kinda has a lot of history for me. It'd mean a lot for me to share this dance with you, but I have these exes that might not like it... not one bit."

"Waiiiit..."

"I want this, Jaune," Blake now began, her pleading eyes immediately rending the boy's heart and mind to mush, "_Please_... defeat my exes, and we'll be able to be together..."

Jaune shook himself out of his temporary stupor, his heart palpitating faster than he'd be comfortable with until coming to a reluctantly acceptable compromise, "Well... there's no chance that it's _actually_ Blake, at least. And if it's a side story, I'm sure she'll never find out about it... heh. Okay, I accept!"

_**DING!**_

**[BOSS 1/7: Mercury Patel]**

"Wait, this mini game's a _boss room?_" Jaune exclaimed in shock before his gaze turned on the ravenette herself in disbelief, "And you had _seven exes!?_"

"That's right, buddy! And I was the _first!_"

Jaune snapped his head back as a large plume of aura reminiscent of a video-game spawning animation appeared in the middle of the dance floor... to reveal none other than Mercury in the center.

"Dude, is that eye-shadow? And... why are you dressed like a pirate?"

"_Shut up_, Arc!" The overly-emo teen barked back in a swashbuckler getup before noting, "And I'll have you know, Johnny Depp characters are _in_ this year!"

"This is so wrong," Jaune whispered before looking back at Blake, who seemed to be behind some kind of invisible wall with a single purple tile on it reading _'Immortal Object'_, "You actually went out with this guy!?"

"It was only for a day, and we were ten," she explained placidly, looking up in thought with a small pout and leaving her pale neck and collarbone line leading down to the smooth expanse of the low-cut version of her school dance dress that was no longer covered in sheen satin open to his gaze, "Mercury and I were bored an angry at the time, and I liked that about him. We went around beating up the neighborhood kids that annoyed us..."

"Before you left me without even giving me a reason!" Mercury shouted petulantly, crossing his arms in a huff in front of the teens and causing the catgirl to deadpan.

"You seriously need a reason? ...You're doing it right now."

"We barely held hands _once_," Pirate-Mercury whined before pointing at Jaune dramatically, "But no matter! I shall defeat you and reclaim Blake's love! Remember this day, Arc, remember it as the day you were beaten by Captain Mercury Patel!"

Jaune instinctively reached down for Crocea Mors, his eyes widening as his hand grasped nothing and he looked down to see himself wearing only his school uniform.

"Aw, _c'mon_."

"Heee-_yah!_"

Jaune barely dodged in time to avoid being impaled by the young man's serrated saber which had seemingly appeared from thin air, the weaponless knight rolling back and standing up before throwing his arms up in frustration.

"Aw, _C'MON!_"

"Stand still, Arc! _And prepare to die!_" Mercury yelled with an over-dramatic mania as he dashed forward again, the knight keeping his elbows tucked in and deftly sidestepping, dodging, and ducking under the flurry of slashes that followed. He mentally thanked Pyrrha for the tutoring, as even Mercury's speed was nothing compared to her nearly imperceptible Miló and Akoúo.

The smug grin on his face at his successful defense and at the _very _out-of-character mercenary's growing consternation, Jaune's confidence only grew as he heard Blake waving a small red banner with his family crest on it from behind her impenetrable barrier.

"Go, Jaune!"

However, his moment to give her a slightly goofy thumbs up in reply turned out to be a fatal mistake as it left him wide open to the eccentric captain's two-handed saber slash.

"AHHHHHHHH-" **_THUNK_**, "...hah?"

Both teens locked in place, their eyes simply drifted to the point on Jaune's shoulder where Mercury's blade had only cut through the suit and not even penetrated the skin.

"Of course. You had no sword skills IRL, so it makes sense that they'd be poo-poo in the side game!" Jaune exclaimed before performing a swift spin move to disarm the merc just as Pyrrha had taught him before ducking down on a knee and running Mercury through with an upwards slash of his own sword.

"I know it might seem a little cold on my part... but it ain't anything I haven't done before," Jaune stated with an apologetic smirk at the wide-eyed pirate before he exploded into a flash of pixels, "Cool derezzed animation."

_**DING!**_

**[Evil Ex Defeated!]**

"Nice," Jaune mused at the window as little bits of confetti streamed around it, "One down, six to-_PUWAHHH!_"

Hefted through the air by a powerful blow to the back, Jaune landed face first in the glassy tiles and skidded several feet to the feet of a startled Blake who currently held a hand to her mouth in surprise and pained sympathy for the boy.

"Rule number one in my club, bub... _don't_ turn your back to the dance floor."

Jaune stood up, brushed off the dust on his blazer, and slowly turned to see the evidently mature owner of the gruff voice before turning back to Blake, "_Please_ don't tell me you dated him when you were ten."

"No. Much later than that. About a year ago, a lead I was tailing sent me here of all places... Junior offered a glass of milk and a dance."

"..."

"It was just a dance!"

"It's like I don't even _know_ you anymore," Jaune huffed as Junior chuckled from behind them.

"It's alright. You wouldn't be the first guy to miss the mark when it comes to a girl. Even Kit-Kat over there missed hers that night."

However, she narrowed her eyes at the large man before hissing, "You _were_ the mark, idiot."

"W-What?" he hedged as he slowly but surely put two and two together, his eyes going wide behind his red aviators before exclaiming, "The intel on the Dust shipment via train... y-_you_ were the one who swiped it off of me that night!"

At that, Junior then reached behind his back to pull out what looked like a sizeable club before shouting, "I thought what we had was _SPECIAL! _I'll show you... I'll show them all... and I'll start with Blondie here first!"

_**DING!**_

**[BOSS 2/7: Junior Lee]**

"Great. How did this involve _me_ all of a sudden!?"

Jaune braced himself, sure that being ready for the blow would provide him protection as it had against Mercury...

**_TWAK!_**

...to no avail.

Flying through the air and crashing through one of the four glass columns at each corner of the dance floor, Jaune got up slowly, blinking at what he now realized was an RPG-style health bar above his head. Clearly, this Junior guy had some sort of super strength.

_**\'] \'] **\']  
_

"Huh. Really low-res hearts... just like Legend of Zelda... except weirder."

"I'll give you _'weird,'_ punk!" Junior exclaimed before aiming the club at Jaune, the barrel elongating into some form of massive bazooka.

"I seen weirder," he retorted faltly, clearly unimpressed, "Try a scythe that turns into a gun."

Blake nodded understandingly as well, only causing the grunt to roar in anger before firing a volley of missiles at the young man.

_**BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!**_

Running as fast as his legs would carry him, Jaune slid under and dodged missiles that completely wrecked a side of the club, taking cover under the large glass column which was promptly destroyed by the last of the missiles. Thankfully unaffected by the falling debris thanks to his high DEF, Jaune quickly thought of a plan as he recalled the owner from Yang's story the night before when she told him about blowing up that very club and decided to run with it.

"Okay, I give up!"

Blake's jaw went slack in disbelief as the young man covered in rubble and glass walked out from behind the shattered column with both arms raised, much to Junior's amusement. However, the clubmaster's chuckle died down when Jaune lifted his head while holding up a finger with his upheld hand with a smirk, "On one condition. We settle this like _civilized_ men."

"Huh?"

Jaune's only reply was to show the coin in his other upheld hand with a small flourish, Junior scratching the back of his head as he elaborated, "We each wanna be with Blake, right? And I'm sure you don't want it to cost you another club, right? So we make it even... Heads, you get Blake. Tails, I get Blake."

He knew that it was a gamble, and that this was just a game... but strangely enough... him having Blake? What a strange yet oddly alluring thought...

On the other hand, Junior grinned, nodding in acceptance of the offer while he cocked his weapon where neither of the teens could see. Little did they know that Junior was a man who makes his own luck and would win this bet one way or another...

"Okay," Jaune announced as he readied to flip the coin high in the air, "Keep an eye on it so we don't lose it when it lands!"

And as Junior's eyes went up to follow the coin, Jaune dashed forward with a wide grin to land a solid punch on the man's diaphragm, knocking his air out and yanking the loaded weapon from his grasp to turn it on its own owner.

**_BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!_**

"HAH! Yang was right, you really _are_ gullible!" Jaune yelled in glee as the direct hits caused the man to de-rez in mid air, checking the coin that finally landed next to him and adding with a snort, "Tails never fails..."

_**DING!**_

**[Evil Ex Defeated!]**

"That was genius," Blake stated from behind the knight with a tone of muted awe, flashing him a grin when he turned back that made him smirk in reply.

"Well if that means I don't have to go through five more bosses to take you out, then I honestly wouldn't mind taking the compliment," he huffed in reply with a half-chuckle until he noticed her grin fading into her normal sullen expression.

"This barrier... I didn't put it here by choice..."

But before Jaune could ask for an explanation, another voice caused him to turn around towards the dance floor.

"Aw, don't spoil the surprise, Kitty. We want Baby Blue here to get the full _experience!_"

Without a moment to lose, Jaune tumbled out of the way to dodge a bright red flash that tore through the air only to explode against the invisible barrier without any damage to the construction, the _Immortal Object_ tile flashing twice before reverting to its normal size.

"Bah. I was really hoping that cage wasn't as sturdy as advertised."

"Seriously? Him too!?" Jaune yelled at the catgirl as the pale blue window popped up between them.

_**DING!**_

**[BOSS 3/7: Roman Ingram]**

"No, never!" Blake retorted before putting a hand to her chin in thought, "I think... I think the system rates my Exes on the major fights I've had in my life... in that order..."

"Well, _sweetie_," Roman noted sarcastically in his signature white overcoat and Melodic Cudgel idly twirling in his hand, "Nothing makes an Ex more memorable than the _break up!_"

Dodging another flash of red light fired from the end of the cane at Roman's last words, Jaune shouted, "Would you then mind explaining why you have to aim at ME when venting against _her!?_"

"Simple, kiddo. Only _I_ get to have her. I like to put down the barnyard animals that annoy me _myself_."

Jaune clenched his teeth at the man leering into Blake's immortal cage, the girl visibly flinching back in fear as the thief tapped on the barrier with his cane.

"_I'll never let you!_"

"Ohoho~ so eager," Roman noted with amusement merely flicking the young man who had tried to surprise-charge him from behind with his cane and sending Jaune skidding across the floor, "People might get the wrong idea about you two if you try so hard..."

"Well what's it to_ you!_" Jaune shouted, ambling to his feet as quickly as he could and rushing the man again only to have every punch and kick painfully deflected with casual twirls of Melodic Cudgel before sending him flying back with a blast at point blank range.

"Oww..."

_**\'] **\'] \']_

"Ughhh, that's not good..."

"Jaune, remember," Blake cried out from behind the barrier, "If you can't defeat him, imagine a weapon that can!"

Time slowed down for the young Arc as his mind furiously milled through ideas, the criminal twirling his cane as the tip charged up before the knight came up with the perfect weapon.

"I may not be able to out-class, or even out-style you," Jaune began before standing up and reaching behind his back to pull out his trusty acoustic-electric guitar, "But Oum knows I can definitely out-_play_ you!"

Without wasting any time, Roman aimed and fired at the young man, only to have the ball of energy shredded in midair by the sound waves from the guitar's first power chord. Causing the criminal himself to skid back a few feet, Jaune began to play a string of notes that reverbed over the dance floor, pushing back the man who merely chortled at the tune.

"Ahah! _Staircase to heaven!? _Oh, oh my, heh, is there any more commonly played song these days!? It's practically cliché!" Roman retorted before his smile faded upon realizing his bowler hat had been blown off by the musical assault, "Well, _kid_... _two_ can play at_ that _game..."

Twirling Melodic Cudgel around and into a diagonal two-handed grip, Roman scowled as the bottom half expanded and mecha-shifted around to form the pumpkin-shaped body of an electric guitar, the criminal himself erupting into flames of orange light as aural strings materialized on the instrument. Jaune's eyes narrowed at him as he noticed that the number of orange glowing strings only amounted to _four_.

"A _bass_ player... no _wonder_ you're such a douche."

"That's impossible!" Blake shouted angrily from her safe haven as the stylish robber began to levitate in the air as well, "How'd you even unlock your aura without Hunter training!?"

"You know, there is a way to do it that people just don't realize anymore," Roman stated, his voice warped by the masses of surging aura around him before a final blast completed the transformation, changing his hair style to that of a spiked up flame of orange with his eyes whited out with power.

"_You go **Vegan!**_"

**_BAAAAAAAAAWAWAWAWAWWWW..._**

The blast of power from the augmented power chord nearly caused Jaune to fall back completely, the overpowered vegan grinning as he started strumming out the rhythmic intro line, "Y'know kid, it's been a while since I made a guy bite the dust to the sounds of _Another One Bites The Dust_... this'll be fun."

_**~BADADUM-DUM-DUM...BADUDUDUM-DUM-DUDUM~**_

Each note roaring through the air, nearly visible with each surge of power, Jaune had to hold up an arm to guard his face as the aural musician drifted closer. Knowing that he couldn't let him get to the main part lest he be outplayed for good, Jaune reached out with a growl and brought his hand down with a mighty strum that sent Roman drifting back as the steady notes flowed out melodically.

"_Simple Man!?_ You counter Queen with Shinedown!?" Roman roared as the blast of orange aura returned his hair to flame mode and his eyes to OP mode, "I got something real simple for you! _Money_, in the style of the _Pinkest_ of _Floyds!_"

The superior volume crushing the sound waves of Jaune's counter, Roman's surge of electrical power caused the blonde to fly back, his back landing on the glass tile with a dull crack and the teen looking down to see his guitar with a crack down the side.

"No... can't, lose... like this... Stay with me, Lil' Slash!"

Fighting back the rhythmic waves of Roman's approaching machine of death rock, Jaune had an idea as he looked down at the top hat sticker on his trusty instrument and stood up to offer his last roar.

"Feel the power of my own crafted weapon, the smoke of guns and the thorns of roses, _Sweet Child O' Mine!_"

His hands never straying far from the highest parts of the fretboard, an unnaturally loud tune flew back through the air as Jaune's guitar strings glowed white and the sound waves could be teen rippling across Roman's face. The criminal tried to raise his hand to counter with another song but was too late, the young teen hitting the most epic solo of all time flawlessly to the utter amusement to his newest fan behind her barrier.

**_WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW..._**

The cacophony of sound building in the dance floor, Roman finally stumbled back as his neo-guitar broke in two and derezzed, the criminal himself yelling as he too began to break apart, "No... _No!_ It _can't_ be! _Can it!?_"

And against all odds, Jaune was able to breathe easy as Roman finally broke apart completely...

Only to groan with the same breath as the fourth boss spawned over his dead body.

_**DING!**_

**[BOSS 4/7: Sir Wulf]**

It only took one millisecond of looking at the black hulky mass of Beowulf now standing on the dance floor on both hind legs before the exasperated night turned a sharp glare at the girl while pointing emphatically at the Grimm.

"Ex_plain_."

"I-I don't know what to say!" Blake retorted quickly with a furious blush racing across her cheeks, "It was shortly before I decided to join Beacon! I had just made some really difficult personal decisions in my life! I was afraid, I was confused, I... I was lonely!"

"...How _stoned_ do you have to be for that to even _work!?_"

_'No, no. I assure you, t'was merely a severe case of intoxication that night,' _the Beowulf itself unexpectedly spoke with a strangely Shakespearian Sean Connery accent, _'__But that night was the most incredible night of my three hundred years of life! T'was ambrosia, the nectar of the dark gods I savored in my quest for human understanding... t'was beauty, which saved the beast!'_

Jaune could only gape in shock at the beast's words, turning back to find Blake with eyes tightly screwed shut in embarrassment and her legs tightly clenched together as well as the beast began sniffing in the air.

_'Yet I sense another suitor. You, you there, with the Celestine eyes,'_ the wolf uttered, its eyes sharpening in crimson intensity like any wild Grimm,_ 'I sense that she yearns for you, hungers for you... I shan't have a competitor! You shall die so her purity remains mine for the taking!'_

**_GRAWR!_**

Dodging an animalistic slash from the wolf, Jaune couldn't help but sigh in relief that the ravenette still had whatever purity that jacked up creature was talking about. But dodging another roaring pounce of the monster, Jaune had to think... was he glad about that because that still left _him_ hope of being the one?

No. No no. He couldn't think that way.

_'Curse you, Celestine! Stand still so that I may ravage you with my midnight ochre!' _

"What does that even mean!?"

"..._murgle_."

Jaune quickly turned to see Blake speedily covering up her face as if she were blowing her nose... but, with no tissues. And, was that blood?

But turning back, he saw the wolf pause mid-attack to sniff the air instead of taking his head off, giving him an idea.

"Blake? Blake! Whatever you're perving on right now, keep doing it! And try lifting the hem of your skirt a bit while you're at it!"

"I _what!?_" she shrieked uncharacteristically, her stomach dropping at the prospect of being found out, "W-What are you even _talking_ about!"

"Look, I may suck with body language in general, but I'm pretty sure I've read enough anime to know what a nosebleed means!" Jaune shouted as he narrowly kept his arm from being snapped off in the jaws of the beast. But just when it seemed the Grimm had gotten the drop on him, the beast lifted its head up to sniff again, this time locking its sights on the young woman several yards away who was covering her eyes and nose with one hand while shakily picking up her skirt well above mid-thigh with the other. At that, the wolf spared no second thought, immediately sprinting towards her with excited panting as Jaune swiftly leapt into action. Flipping up to his feet to dislodge a glass tile, Jaune waited patiently as the wolf sped closer to the fantasizing catgirl.

"Just like skidding a stone on water..."

And timing the frisbee-like throw perfectly, he sent the glass tile skidding across the floor with just the right angle to get under the Grimm's final steps to its original prey, causing it to slip on the unstable surface and crash head-first into the invisible barrier, immediately breaking its neck.

_**DING!**_

**[Evil Ex Defeated!]**

As Jaune stepped forward to examine that the large Grimm was indeed disintegrating in its post-mortem state, he heard Blake's voice shakily coming through the barrier.

"I-I'm so sorry..."

"You should be," Jaune noted with a small shiver in distaste, "I mean, you and a Beowulf getting to third-"

"That's _not_ what happened!" the catgirl quickly shot back, Jaune's implications clearly snapping her out of her previous state of mind and body, "I found him in the woods and gave him an extra drink in my own inebriated state of mind! Technically the first time I've ever shared a drink with anyone! Turns out... somehow... alcohol has the _opposite_ effect on Grimm than it does on humans, actually accelerating their cerebral functions! It's... just that, other tendencies don't change. Like Sir Wulf being a pervy drunk. I ran away, hearing him swearing that he'd find me and make me his someday..."

"Oh," Jaune noted, becoming embarrassed himself for his own mind having been in the gutter before looking at her with a questioning expression, "Then if nothing happened, what was your nosebleed all abou-?"

**_WHISH!_**

Missing his head by mere inches, Jaune barely caught sight of the golden flash that had flown over him before having to dodge it again by a mere hair's-breadth. Knowing what he'd now have to do, the knight focused his power into a single fist, fiery white energy coalescing onto his limb as he anticipated the next attack.

"Shoryuken!"

And right when he caught a flash of gold entering his field of vision, he heaved upwards with a mighty uppercut and made contact, sending his assailant tumbling across the floor with an unexpectedly feminine yell.

"_Jeez_, Vomit Boy! You punched me in the boob!"

His eyes widened as the blonde girl stood up and was revealed to be none other than the brawler herself... except wearing some sort of Saiyan Battle Armor with her ample blonde hair tied back in a ponytail that seemed to explode outwards in wavy frizz behind her.

_**DING!**_

**[BOSS 5/7: Yang Richter]**

But despite the strangeness of the name, and the outfit, Jaune merely pointed with a raised brow in knowing accusation at the catgirl behind him.

"I _KNEW_ you two had gotten together at one point or another!"

"It was the day in first semester after we fought off Roman at the docks!" Blake defended adamantly, "Yang knew of this club and offered to take me to help me unwind! It... it wasn't meant to be that way!"

"That _way!?_"

"That's right, Saber-boy," Yang retorted from behind him with a suggestive wink, "_That_ way. That night was practically a Katy Perry song down to the tee!"

But her expression suddenly hostile, she pointed a finger at her fellow blonde as an inferno of fiery aura surrounded her and she also began levitating into the air, "But of anyone I've ever met, _you're_ the one who has gotten closest to taking away my chances with her in the future... and that is a ship I _will not_ let sink! Therefore, prepare to _DIE_, Jaune A-"

"Wait, hold on," Jaune interrupted calmly, stopping the raging young woman in mid-tirade, "Why're you dressed that way again?"

"Because I am the princess of Saiyans! And you're just a common student or something who doesn't even have the right to make a move on my Kitten!"

"Commoner, huh?" Jaune echoed with a hand to his chin in thought before snapping his fingers in realization, "So, I'm like Aladdin then... and that makes you _Jasmine!_"

"Wha-," Yang retorted, her arms firmly crossed under her bust in disapproval, "What are you talking about."

"Yeah, that movie where Aladdin is the commoner and Jasmine is the princess!" Jaune continued, the girl's confusion quickly turning to anger as he continued, "Then we've got Ozpin, who's practically like the Sultan of Beacon since no one really has any idea why or even how he runs the place... we have ADA flying us around these days, which is _like_ a flying carpet... oh, but I forgot about Aladdin's monkey, Abu. You can't have Aladdin without A-"

Jaune snapped his fingers again with a grin as Yang's scowl deepened, "_Sun_. Hah, it's perfect! Sun even has a tail, he's just _like_ Abu! He can _be_ my Abu! ...Sun's mah _boo! _Huh... you'd think Aladdin might sue us or something cuz of how similar our-"

"_SHUUUT UUUP!_" Yang now shouted in fury as her fiery aura warped and exploded all the glass tiles around her, "_This is nothing like a stupid movie!_ I don't watch movies, I'm the princess of all Saiyans! I was serious about killing you before, Arc, but now... I'm _DEADLY_ serious! So shut up and stop talking about that darn Disney movie!"

But pausing at the flaming waves of Aura flowing around the room and straightening out of his fighter's pose that he'd instinctively dropped down to when Yang had her outburst, Jaune narrowed his eyes at her.

"_Wait _a second, Yang."

"What_ now!_"

"The movie."

"What _about_ it?!"

"You just said _Disney_ movie."

"So_ what!_"

"I never said _anything_ about who made that movie... which _means_," he paused as he gripped his leather glove tightly in an upheld fist before pointing dramatically at the fiery Saiyan with the other, "You _DID_ watch it!"

"**_AAAAAAAAARGH!_**"

Yang's aura-enhanced shout and fire blast that emanated out to crumble the rest of the columns around the dance floor was quickly followed by a series of punches and kicks that pushed the unprepared knight far back, nearly costing him his life had it not been for Pyrrha's excellent training.

"Jaune, you can't beat her in hand-to-hand combat!" Blake yelled from behind the barrier with worry for the knight, "She's a _Saiyan_, she'll only get stronger with every hit you land on her!"

"I haven't even _landed_ a hit on her!"

"_Hiyah!_"

Evading a powerful left hook which would've taken his head clean off, Jaune continued dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging to buy himself precious time until he had an idea.

"Aha!"

Flipping back with a string of surprisingly flawless somersaults, Jaune made space between the two of them before raising both hands above his head. The knight growling with the growing sphere of positive energy over his head, Yang paused mid-stride as the large ball of energy charged up to maximum potential.

"Alright Yang, let's see how well you can handle," Jaune took a deep breath to brace himself before throwing the ball of energy forward, "_KAMEHAMEHAAAA!_"

_**FWOOOOOOOM!**_

Yang only had to lean to the side with crossed arms and a smug smirk for the projectile to miss her completely, Jaune's jaw dropping at the total lack of auto-lock before hearing the energy ball explode against something peculiar behind Yang. Her eyes widening in realization, Yang quickly turned to see the parked vehicle behind her in flames before clutching her hands to her head in mortification.

"Youuu! _You blew up Bumblebee!_ Now it's in a million pieces!"

"Aw c'mon, it's not that bad," Jaune noted with a slight wince, "It's maybe in the low thousands at most..."

"Like, ten thousand?" Yang asked, her bottom lip almost quivering as she answered Jaune's questions mindlessly in the face of the tragedy.

"Um, maybe a little lower."

"Eight thousand?"

"Higher than that..."

"Nine thousand?" Yang restated, glancing at the blonde with slightly confused grief and wondering what he was getting to... before seeing him smirk an evil smirk.

"Mini Kamehameha!" Jaune whispered quickly, a tiny ball of energy appearing in his hand before flying over at the totaled motorcycle and blowing up another destroyed section into even more pieces, causing the brawler's flames to reignite in renewed fury.

"IT'S OVER NINE-THOUSAND!"

Jaune merely turned to glance at the catgirl with a mischievous grin as the catgirl facepalmed, the girl then pointing his attention in Yang's direction with a deadpan, "Incoming."

Jaune barely dodged a right cross that still managed to glance him with the speed, the force sending him skidding back along the floor. Thanking his naturally high DEF for absorbing the partial blow which easily could've depleted his health, Jaune stood up and stared at the ravenette with a deadpan of his own, "A little help here would be nice. Can't even find a hole in her offense!"

Blake thought up of an alternate recourse before replying, "Wait, I-I think I've got it. Yang has this weak spot, the only weak spot I know of on her... it's on the back of her knee, tickle it!"

"Traitor!" Yang yelled, turning with fiery red eyes to her technical ex. But it was the reprieve Jaune needed, sliding over and ducking down to squeeze the back of her knee in a tickling motion.

"No! N-N-_NO!_ Pfft, hah-hahah, s-stop it!" she yelled as her knee immediately buckled, the damage already done as Jaune stepped back to look at the giggling girl until she finally burst into a million pixels.

_**DING!**_

**[Evil Ex Defeated!]**

"That... was actually incredibly easy," Jaune noted before shooting the catgirl a glare, "I _wonder_ how you ever figured _that_ one out."

Blake crossed her arms with narrowed eyes in an attempt to look upset, jutting her hip out to the side in a motion that ultimately made her look absolutely adorable, "Don't blame _me_. At least it helped you get out of trouble... wait, spoke too soon."

Jaune sighed with a light shaking of his head, "There's someone behind me, isn't there."

"Prepare for trouble!" another female voice began without causing the knight any more surprise, jumping on the opportunity for introductions. But what did catch him by surprise again was the addition of a _second_ female voice to the intro.

"Make it double!~"

"To bring the world to devastation!"

"To divide all peoples within our nation!~"

"To announce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!~"

"M-"

"Aww, _shut up already_," an exasperated Jaune hedged loudly as he turned to see two twins dressed in contrast standing back to back, one in red and one in white, who then stood apart giving him an identical pair of ominous glares, "Two of you? Seriously? _At the same time!?_"

"In my defense... me and Yang met them during the same night in the club after the incident at the docks," Blake defended weakly, the blonde facepalming in reply.

"You really weren't kidding about _history_ in this place, weren't you."

Blake shrugged before replying, "They shared my affinity for blades. One thing led to the other."

"Speaking of which," the girl in red stated with a wicked grin as wolverine-like claws extended from her fists, "Surrender now..."

The girl in white then dropped into fighting position, both tiny fists held up at the knight as she finished, "...or prepare to fight!"

"Ugh, you two just _had_ to finish it," Jaune stated before catching sight of the large DJ table behind them, "But look, you two are armed. I'm not. How 'bout we settle this with more... _elegant_... weapons. From a more civilized time?"

The twins turned to look at the elevated table behind them at the same time before glancing back at each other at the same time... and then turning back to face Jaune and shrug at the same time.

"_Whatever_."

Tumbling back with synchronized flips, the two girls disappeared from the dance floor only to emerge up from behind the DJ table itself in the next, lights now beginning to set the club ablaze with strobes and colors as a steady hum began to echo over the floor.

_**DING!**_

**[BOSS 6/7: The Katayanagis]**

"Jaune, I know you're being resourceful, but I'm actually not sure that was a good idea at all," Blake stated hurriedly, her hands pressed up against the barrier in her urgency, "Miltia and Melanie aren't just clubbers... they _make_ the playlists and remixes used here!"

But to her surprise, Jaune merely turned to face her with a small smirk and a raised brow as the hum got louder.

"I'm sorry, did I stutter? This is an art of War I've known since my earliest days of band battles and dance-offs as a kid... and _I_ have my arsenal."

And kneeling down, he pressed both hands against the busted floor to summon a glassy white two-tiered keyboard which rose up from the floor, "Besides, I'd know this song anywhere! Judging by the robot helmets they got at the corners of their board, I sense this is gonna be a medley remix -_ Inspire, by Throttle!_"

_Work it- Work it- Make it harder-_

_Harder- Faster- Makes us stronger-_

_Work it- Work it- Make it harder-_

_Ha-Harder- Makes us- Power-_

Blakes eyes widened at the familiar but remixed lyrics as she guessed their relation to the model helmets the twins kept on their canvas of musical creation, her surprise only reaching new heights as she heard Jaune jump in seamlessly with incredibly smooth piano melodies.

"J-Jaune?"

"Almost twenty songs from the best twin DJs from Vacuo mashed up together into this piece, _twenty!_" Jaune stated as the buildup continued, "And to think those guys actually did the DJing at our school dance this year!"

_Work it- Work it- Make it harder-_

_Harder- Faster- Makes us stronger-_

_Work it- Work it- Make it harder-_

_Harder- Harder..._ **(A/N: INSERT DROP HERE)**

_Work it._

_**BUUUUUUU...**_

The whole club rumbled to life as the track exploded into a medley of rhythms, several mixes coming together at once to rattle glass and deafen ears as the twins grinned in delight. As Jaune waited for them to complete their section, he and Blake noticed a pale green glow surrounding the twins and table which suddenly erupted into two gigantic twin dragon heads made from aura and enhanced by music. Blake gasping and Jaune scowling as the music continued, the heads bobbed to the beat until launching themselves at Jaune to attack.

But playing an eloquent trill on the keyboard, a white flash caused each head to reel back with a pained roar as Jaune and his keyboard glowed to the point of sprouting what looked like the top half of a Yeti, then reaching up to the second tier of his keyboard to play the electric keyboard section. The Yeti landing a solid punch on one head, Melanie grit her teeth and slammed a fist on the mixing table as the two girls started edging in their tracks with lyrics once more to launch their musical aural constructs into battle.

_Work it harder- Make it better-_

_Do it faster- Makes us stronger-_

_More than ever- Power after-_

_Power work it- Never over-_

Each beast trading blows with the other in tune with the beats, the Yeti turning to jab and block the slithery heads, the next verse continued.

_Work it harder- Make it better-_

_Do it faster- Makes us stronger-_

_More than ever- Power after-_

_WE GOT THE EPIC MOTHERF- Work it._

The blast of the twins' track that followed coincided with a twin head bash on the Yeti, knocking it and Jaune back near the back end of the dance floor as the twins themselves traded a single high-five without even having to look at each other. It didn't take a genius to figure out that if Jaune went over the edge, he was done for. But in the midst of the bass tracks and leads, he could barely fit in any trills for his Yeti to counter the would be killing strikes. But at the end of another trill, Jaune found the opening he needed and kept a steady beat on the keyboard as the Yeti beat back the dragons to a stand off, the two sides waiting as Blake looked back and forth between them with constant distress.

"Jaune, your nose... it's bleeding..."

"Would you believe me if I told you it's just me fantasizing about you and that dress?" he replied to her surprise with a tired smile, Blake quickly realizing it was in his effort to soothe her concerns, "Kidding. But for what it's worth... you're_ worth it_."

The mix of shock, affection, and reciprocation of emotion from her rising up into an endearing grin, Blake's reaction gave Jaune what he needed to slam his hands on the keyboard which equated to the Yeti's lunge forward to bash the dragon heads together before the twins could react. Now using both tiers of the keyboard in tandem to round out the song, Jaune played on as the Yeti span and roared to grip a dragon head in a headlock before snapping its aural neck. Catching the other head that flew at it in furious vengeance, the Yeti gripped it with both hands before taking a huge chomp of its exposed neck in the middle.

Dropping the second head as Jaune finished the song, the dragon heads dissipated as the twins yelled in anger, a panting Jaune saluting them with a smirk before they burst into pixels.

_**DING!**_

**[Evil Ex Defeated!]**

"That... that should be all seven, right?" Jaune noted as he counted off his foes on his fingers, the twins accounting for two as he approached Blake with a hopeful smile, "After that last relationship of yours, you got your new Semblance, and well... here we are."

Blake nodded happily, pressing her hands against the barrier in expectation for it to go down when Jaune's smile faded at the sight of her face paling in her first show of genuine fear he'd ever seen, "No... It, it can't be."

"_You never **called**. You don't **write**... how **else** am I supposed to get your attention?_"

Blake staggered back a few steps with a slack jaw as Jaune quickly turned to see a mysterious man he'd never seen before who donned naught but a tuxedo, some sort of weapon at his hip... and a Grimm mask.

_**DING!**_

**[BOSS 7/7: Adam Gordon Graves]**

"Sorry, Arc," the figure began, his red hair glinting in the clublight, "But this story wasn't _meant_ for you to win it. It was _designed_ to get her right where I knew I could find her... and bring her back!"

"And if she doesn't _want_ to go back?" Jaune growled, stepping in the way of the ominous man who was already taking steps towards the barrier and the girl inside whom he could clearly tell wanted nothing to do with him, to which Adam merely gave a few quiet chuckles.

"Look, kid. You've made it this far, so I'll do you the courtesy of warning you once. _Step. Away_."

"Not unless _Blake_ says so."

The mask barely made a motion to look at the girl behind the knight before Adam made the slightest movement with his head back to Jaune, "Suit yourself."

_**THWAK!**_

And with speed he couldn't even register, Jaune could barely tell that Adam had reached out and shoved him aside with strength even above that of Yang's, the blonde flying clear off the dance floor and crashing into the club bar area several dozen feet away.

"Hmph. Puny human."

Somehow regaining consciousness, Jaune awoke halfway through the bar countertop to see the blinking lights over his head.

_**\**'] \'] \']_

"Half a heart... heh, I must have higher DEF than I thought. Or some pretty solid videogame plot armor..."

"I didn't think you'd survive that one, kid," Adam noted from afar, having paused in mid motion to turn to Blake when he heard Jaune coming around. But only crouching down a few inches, the man leapt soundlessly through the air, flipping once before landing next to Jaune by the bar with little more than a small draft of air from his tux, "Maybe you're actually a Faunus, and your human parents were simply too humiliated to reveal it to you."

Jaune cocked both brows at once, grunting as he put his arms under him in a motion to get up, "Well, that might explain a few things about my sheltered childhood-"

"Don't, get up," Adam warned with what might've sounded like a hint of pity in his voice for the pained teen had it not been for the smirk visible from under his mask, the man leaning on the undamaged part of the countertop and idly picking up a small spoon, "Chivalry is much like the men who founded the ideal... dead. If you think you'll have an honorable death by protecting a girl who was never not under my control, I will sooner kill you with this spoon."

"What do you mean _under your control?_" Jaune asked the man, barely noting the catgirl beating the barrier furiously in the distance as if to keep Adam from answering. Maybe it was genuine pity, or maybe it was the belief that he'd have her back with him soon anyways that he glanced at her with an amused scoff and turned back to the blonde.

"What. She didn't tell you? Figured she wouldn't. Let's just say a mutual group we shared in the past always made sure to tag its members... she may have been away long enough to think she's free, but Blake should know better than most that you can never leave..."

Jaune watched Blake go wide-eyed and stop banging on the barrier only to shakily reach behind her neck in realization. He then slowly turned to Adam, the first flickers of hate he had ever felt in life igniting against the man as he eked out, "Eeeeeeevil..."

"Don't," Adam passively warned again, granting the blonde a mere raised brow and taking a single step back as the blonde struggled to his feet, "Are you really willing to throw yourself away for a girl you don't even know?"

"It's not about knowing her," Jaune began shakily, wiping a small trail of blood from his temple as he lifted his steely gaze at the man he know realized had bull horns on his head, "It's about the time I'm willing to spend _getting_ to know her... and every second I spend with her makes me want to stay with her a hundred more..."

Jaune turned to face her, seeing the girl smiling warmly at him even as a tear feel from her eye and landed on the corners of her quivering lips. He turned back to Adam only at the sudden sounds of his disdainful laughter.

"HA! Haha, that's rich! Oho, this being said about an operative who'd have killed you without a second thought less than a year ago!" Adam added between chortles before controlling himself with a deep breath, "Sentimental _garbage_. I'd almost think you were in love with her after using words like_ that_."

"If that's what it takes," Jaune declared, his voice low but firm as he was about to say something he'd never been so sure of saying before in his nearly eighteen years of life, "I... am in love with Blake Belladonna!"

_FWOOOOOSH!_

_**PING!**_

**[By trusting in the power of your love, you have unlocked the _Heart Sword!_]**

Jaune watched the window wide-eyed as a gust of wind encircled him and the air around him grew red with a heated glow around his chest, Adam staggering back as Jaune felt lifted into the air until an ethereal sword hilt burst forth from his chest with RPG fanfare music. Slowly reaching to the hilt and feeling the object solidify in his grasp, Jaune pulled it out to see the pristine form of Crocea Mors in his palms. Now set on the ground with the glow gone and the steel marvel in his grasp, he pointed the weapon at Adam with a confident smirk.

"Alright, then, Adam... _prepare to figh_-"

_swishswishclick_

Jaune was in mid-sentence when he suddenly couldn't find it in himself to continue, feeling inexplicably weak when he noticed to his great dismay that Crocea Mors had been sliced cleanly in half... and that someone had apparently poured a drink down his shirt?

But reaching up to his neck and pulling his hand up to see it completely stained in red, Jaune realized what had happened as he noticed Adam's only change in posture being that his hand was now on the hilt of his weapon... before slumping down to the side of the bar counter as he heard Blake's distant wailing and the sound of his half-heart bursting into pixels.

"Your words disgust me, human," Adam noted over the blonde, his words sounding murky as if through water as darkness closed in on the blonde, "Find solace in the fact that I didn't kill you with that spoon."

And then things went black.

Jaune was dead. He had died, his neck slit wide open with a slash he couldn't even _see_. Well, at least it was kinda cool in the end. But as he thought about it with what he figured would be his last thoughts, he could only admit how much it sucked to die.

But then again... who said dead is dead in a side game?

Focusing his thoughts into a single objective with what willpower he had left, Jaune created a mental image of a player furiously mashing on a controller button to satisfy the _Continue Game?_ request that one would occasionally receive after dying during an important battle. No way to know if things worked that way in this place... but for Blake? He had to try...

He _had_ to try...

He _HAD_ to tr-!

Color, sound and feeling rushed in all at once as the Arc suddenly gasped for breath, a white glow dimming on his body from what he could tell as the busted club came back into focus. His senses quickly sharpening to razor-thin precision on the man in the tuxedo over the wrecked dance floor merely a few steps from Blake, he could hear the man stop cold and turn his head just a fraction of a degree towards the bar.

"Im_possible_..."

Jaune stood up, all fatigue and pain gone as he set his hand down on the countertop in disbelief... his gaze focusing on the small utensil left on it before coming to a mind-blowing realization.

"There _is_ no spoon..."

The passage of time didn't even register to the blonde knight as he now found himself leaping several feet through the air, the gift of flight through the virtual realm like nothing as he landed a few feet from Adam and swung his fist towards Adam's katana coming straight for his neck...

Before shattering the weapon with his bare-knuckled punch.

Taking a single glance at the weapon in utter shock, the masked man let out an inhuman roar before charging the blonde at full speed in a flurry of hand-to-hand combat attacks, attacks which were simply nowhere near as fast anymore thanks to the blonde's heightened perception. Easily blocking every one of the suited man's blows with enough force to create small clouds of dust with every impact, Jaune idly shifted his weight to the side and flexed his free hand in awe as he continued blocking Adam's jabs, crosses, and kicks with only his other hand.

**_\'] \'] \'] \'] \'] \'] \'] \'] \'] \'] \'] \'] \'] \'] \']_**

"Heh. I can really get used to these side games," Jaune noted as he glanced at the augmented heath bar before turning his attention to the enraged bull and thrusting his open palm forward to send Adam tumbling back across the dance floor.

"Surprised?" Jaune asked the slack-jawed catgirl who had all but collapsed at the unbelievable turn of events, replying to his own question as all she could manage was lamely nod her head, "Yeah. So was I."

"You... how, how did you do that?" Adam asked as he slowly clambered to his feet, heavily favoring his side where Jaune's palm had struck, "You're supposed to be _dead!_"

Jaune nodded in agreement as he focused on the glass shards surrounding the dance floor, getting an idea as he focused on the bull-faunus, "Y'know... not to be cheesy at a time like this, but I guess I'd just have to chalk it up to the power of love."

Now lifting his fist, a small cloud of glass shards and particles rose up around them, each one slowly spinning as if fixed on a single axis before all aligning towards Adam at once, "Now, in my family, we're kinda big with the whole _'eye for an eye'_ thing. _You_, however, threatened my friend, insulted my race... and technically killed me. So tell you what. If you come back from this, I'll be more than happy to wipe the slate clean, 'kay?"

His frown deepening into a hateful scowl, Adam roared and took a step forward before Jaune flicked his wrist forward, engaging a maelstrom of razor-like particles that converged on the boss. More and more punctures made, Adam's yell grew louder until his body began to glow and finally burst into a million pixels under the hail of glassy shrapnel.

But Jaune didn't stop. The hail simply kept coming and tearing up the spot where the Faunus had once stood until he was held back by a desperately longing embrace.

"Jaune... did you, did you really mean what you said?"

Taking the first breath in what felt like ages, Jaune was brought back into the moment as he looked over at the girl whose face was buried in his tattered blazer, his hand finding its way up to soothe her with gentle runs of his fingers through her hair as he finally replied, "Every word."

Her embrace tightened, her teary golden amber eyes finally making their appearance over his chest as she looked up at him and smiled, the two teens now slowly rocking side do side over the busted dance floor to a song only they could hear.

"I should've guessed it... considering the fact you defeated some of the strongest people of Remnant just for a dance."

"Heh, didn't ya know?" Jaune noted softly, his hand slowly finding its way down to meet hers, "I can conquer the world with one hand... as long as you're holding the other..."

Blake's smile grew, the girl taking his other hand and tip-toeing up to meet his lips with hers when the sudden cracking of glass in the middle of the dance floor caught their attention. Jaune turned to see the mass of broken glass forming a huge pile in the center of the floor before collapsing down into an eerie red portal, the suction of air it generated at the moment of its creation causing Blake to take cover behind the knight. But what had Jaune's attention wasn't the phenomenon... it was the greyscale figure who stepped out of it. A motley set of armor, tattered grey Converse sneakers, and a mess of grey hair over shining blood red Grimm-eyes caused as much surprise as it did fear.

"J-Jaune," Blake whispered, her eyes wide as she caught sight of the figure who'd made his way out of the portal, "It's..."

"Me."

_**DING!**_

**[FINAL BOSS: Nega-Jaune]**

Jaune turned his head a fraction of the way back towards the girl he was protecting, his breathing labored as he whispered, "Stay behind me."

The doppelganger looking over the two teens with a tense posture, breathing heavily with exhales that sounded more like intermittent growls, Jaune then stepped forward, letting his hand give Blake's a final soft squeeze before letting it go and facing the dark double with the exact same pose.

The doppelganger now letting out an animalistic huff of breath, he roared with the sound of a thousand men before charging the knight, to which the knight yelled as well and did the same. Blake watched in horror as Jaune closed in to the double with a fist raised at the ready, glowing white as the double glowed black... until just before meeting in the center of the dance floor, they each stopped in their tracks only two or three feet away from each other.

"Dude, do you work out?"

The doppelganger cocked his head at the knight, his red eyes blazing before unexpectedly cracking a modest grin.

**_"Yeah. You can tell?"_**

Blake's eyes widened in incredulity at the dark double whose voice was easily an octave lower than Jaune's as they now entered into totally relaxed conversation.

"Yeah. That's exactly the body-type I'm going for! How long do you have to work out for that kind of muscle tone!?"

**_"Well, over in the Abyss, there really isn't much more to do other than work out or kill people. And after a while, killing people gets kinda boring."_**

"You don't say..."

_**"Yep. Anyway, sorry about that rage moment back there. Breaking the fourth wall always makes me all cranky and stuff."**_

"Breaking the fourth wall?" Blake echoed as she cautiously made her way to Jaune's side and put her arm around his, the knight almost startled by the casual nature of the movement and figuring it was something he wouldn't complain about getting used to.

_**"My Semblance. I break into parallel universes and alternate timelines to make sure my alternate selves get a shot with the Blakes in their worlds. The best timelines are the ones where you two end up together. Guess you can call it a hobby whenever I'm not on a mission."**_

Jaune and Blake merely turned to trade flat glares before looking down at their interlocked arms, Jaune being the first to look up at his double, "Welp, I guess we're all good here."

_**"Good. Cuz I just came from a timeline where I die in initiation. Had to stage a double to follow that world's Blake around until they end up together. It was a real pain."**_

"Sounds precarious," Blake mumbled as a light shade of pink rushed over her cheeks. What if that world's Blake had to take a shower? Or use the bathroom?

**_"I'm pretty sure it'll be fun either way,"_** the doppelganger noted before shrugging ang hiking a thumb over his shoulder at the portal, _**"Welp. I guess I'll just have to go make some some other timeline right with a Knightshade pairing. The universe is just a happier place that way. Laters, I guess."**_

And turning back to re-enter the portal, the new couple merely sent off the doppelganger with awkward waves until-

_**[PAUSE]**_

"Okay, this game officially blows," the young man sitting cross-legged on his bed wearing nothing but his black boxers hedged as he huffed in exasperation, "Sure, the action was okay, the idea was nice... but the writing _sucks! _Honestly, who'd play a light novel game as guy that has to actually have death matches against a girl's exes!?"

In the silence that followed, his gaze eventually turned to the young woman sitting cross-legged at his side on the bed, also wearing nothing except an identical pair of his black boxers.

Her deadpan was epic, her action of subtly raising her brow causing him to chuckle nervously, "Seriously, Scott?"

"Heh... now that I think of it..."

"Mhm. Gimme here," the young woman with brightly colored hair commanded as she reached over and snatched the remote from his grasp, "I wanna give it a shot... without having to use the ridiculous cheats you loaded into the game."

"_You_ say cheats. _I_ say downloadable resources!"

The young woman chuckled with a small smirk as she entered the game menu and selected _Reset_. Inputting her profile, she stared at the screen with an anticipatory grin.

_**Ba-da-dada-da-daaaaaaam!**_

**[_Jaune Arc vs. The World!_]**

**Play from beginning as _Ram0na Fl0w3rs?_**

_**YES - NO**_

"Alright, Adam, here I come. And I _will_ end you..."

_tap_

* * *

**A/N:** _Eesh, this chapter is ridiculous...ly long! The omake started small but eventually became... all of that. So I kinda rolled with it. Hope you guys don't mind! I'm actually really debating on whether or not I should make this crossov-omake a **double meta** and make it semi-canon... hmm... so many choices..._

_Anyway,** drunk Blake and Sir Wulf**. Got the idea after finally getting around to reading **Weiss: Reacts!** There's a crackship chapter where team RWBY finds a fic of Ruby getting paired with a Beowulf and I was on the floor in tears. TEARS. It's a really great fic, and even though after 80 chapters it gives you a good idea on what a RWBYverse version of the LOST show would feel like, it's guaranteed laughs throughout the read! :D_

_As for Scarlet, I think I've made my stance clear :) hehe_

_EDIT (#1): For anyone interested, check out the new RWBY Vol 3 Intro Animation posted today at Roosterteeth. Watch carefully, cuz in the cutscene where teams RWBY and JNPR are falling, Jaune is holding Blake's hand._

_Jaune is holding Blake's hand._

**_JAUNE IS HOLDING BLAKE'S HAND._**

**_KNIGHTSHADE IS REAL._**

_...ahem. Anyways..._

_EDIT (#2): Now I remember. I'd like to take this opportunity to call out to the great fanartists out there to commission a Gamer!Blake/Jaune coverart! I love the Blake pic currently as the coverart for TGG but I think it'll be nice to have one with them together (maybe Blake scratching her head at a notification window as Jaune points stuff out over her shoulder?) I dunno, anything you have to offer, dear readers, as it would be awesome - and better than what I have the time to make, heh!_

_I'm probably forgetting a whole ton of things that I will add in a string of edits over the next few hours, but until then, a little blurb about the** next crossov-omake:** involving OP fights, the detonations of large parts of Beacon, and an overly-extended fight-scene... the appearance of an other-worldly character in the RWBYverse will build up into a fight against Remnant's finest!_

_It will be... a true **Duel of Fates!**_

_Until then, take care..._

**_And Happy Reading!_**


	15. Fallout

_**Fallout**_

* * *

The blonde knight opened his eyes, his head swimming a bit as the steely metallic airship room slowly came into focus around him. With a long groan, Jaune found it in himself to sit up in the cot he'd rested on, his head swimming with what felt like exhaustion despite the few hours of rest he'd managed to squeeze in before re-entering Valean airspace. At least, that's what the constant beeps on his scroll indicated from the small chain of messages coming in from the rest of his team.

Running his hand through his hair as he silenced the incessant beeping with the other, the knight gave a final grunt before standing and making his way over to the convenience sink and mirror near the door. Jaune was happy that he had had the foresight of taking a shower before resting, slipping on his sweater and gear without much more effort to his morning routine than a light once-over through his hair with his hand as a comb.

Stepping out the door, the groggy leader nearly bumped into Fox, or would've if the fox-faunus hadn't eerily sidestepped the student with barely a hitch in his step.

"Good, you're up," the second-year student noted matter-of-factly after pausing in stride as the leader blinked in surprise, "It's well past noon; your team was getting worried. Just know we'll be approaching Beacon in a few."

Letting out a small huff at the blind student's uncanny sense of direction as the dagger-wielder continued his way down the hall, Jaune began making his way in the opposite direction towards the commons area. But in passing the hall that led into the side door exit, he almost jumped at the sound of the voice that called from the previously unperceived presence.

"Overslept? Sort of surprising, even for you."

Jaune backtracked a bit and looked over to the opposite side of the side door which he hadn't looked at that had the access bay window, finally catching sight of the girl half-hidden in shadow on the nook the windowsill provided who was calmly turning another page in her book.

"Blake? Didn't even see you there. Your _Stealth_ skill must be seriously getting buffed these days..."

"Or your _Perception_ skills are abysmally low," she retorted before glancing over the pages at him with a small smirk, "Sleep well?"

"I did... I think," Jaune replied idly as he took a step closer, rubbing his forehead with a slight wince, "Just feel like I pulled an all-nighter or something. What about you? You okay after yesterday?"

"...I've slept better."

The ravenette cocked a brow as Jaune gave her a concerned glance, hiding a ghost of a smile at his considerate nature despite his own discomfort as she added, "And I've slept _worse_ as well. No need to worry."

He gave a short grunt in confirmation, Jaune narrowed his eyes a bit at the book Blake was reading before reading out the title of the book to himself, "Never heard of that book before. _Fifty Shades of_-"

And slamming the book with slightly widened eyes, Blake sat up in her little nook and turned it away, cutting off the knight mid-sentence, "It's... nothing exceptional. Just something I picked out at the library a while back. _Inventory_."

As the flash of light appeared in front of the girl when she nimbly stuffed her most recent object of literary intrigue into hammerspace, Jaune considered calling her out on her statement but found himself too tired to do so. Had he really slept that long without getting a decent rest?

"Okay, sure. How're you feeling after yesterday's stat boosts?" Jaune finally asked as he began to shake the grogginess off of him and the catgirl hugged her knees to her chest to lay her chin on them comfortably, "Your mana reserves practically _doubled_. Not to mention your MP regen rates..."

Blake pursed her lips to the side in thought, unfurling herself and standing without so much a pause for stiff muscles or sleepy limbs before arching her back in a light stretch. Jaune averted his eyes from the young woman's previously unnoticed natural curves as she did so, his cheeks going just a shade red darker as he realized he'd never found himself noticing those things about her before. Well, there was the time with her laugh, and her smile... and the leggings...

"Jaune?"

"Eh, wha?" the knight started, snapping his head back to see Blake sporting a curious half-smirk as she cocked her head to the side at him.

"Um, nothing. You... alright?"

"Heh, yeah, sure!" he replied with false enthusiasm, scratching the back of his head as he sent her a grin, "Just, thought it wouldn't be nice to stare... I mean, not at the wall, but at you- Not that I was, I mean, but you know..."

Blake's smirk momentarily widened into a sort of knowing expression Jaune hadn't quite seen on her before when she just as quickly cleared her throat with a quick summoning of her status window. It wasn't until he saw the light reddening of her own cheeks as she called out the Knightshade party name and sent him the invite that let him see the glowing pop ups in front of them that he realized it had been the first genuine smile he'd ever seen her give. It was... nice, to say the least in his own mind.

He accepted the invite and made to take a step closer to look over her shoulder when she quickly held out a hand to keep him back.

"Hold on, I want to see if I can figure this out myself."

"Figure what out?"

"The split-screen thing you did yesterday."

"I can show you if you-"

"Nope," she interrupted with a nearly imperceptible smirk as she kept her eyes on the pop-up menu in front of her, going through the windows with her free hand as the blonde leader crossed his arms with a smirk and raised brow.

"It really wouldn't take very long if you let m-"

"I... wouldn't know how to work my own Semblance if I let you do the navigation all the time," she retorted again before looking up at him with a broader mischievous smirk, causing his own to widen into a grin as he shook his head.

"So stubborn. Well if you want to take all day with it, be my-"

"Got it."

And just like that, a large window popped up beside them with the appropriate notification.

**_PING!_**

**[Split-Screen Disabled!]**

Jaune stared at it with some surprise before slowly turning his head to give the smug ravenette a soft glare, the catgirl herself mocking the glare before nudging him in the arm with a short chuckle.

"Shoulda known it was you two talkin," a third voice began, the two teens turning to look over their shoulders as the cocoa-themed second-year leader strutted into the side door entryway area, "You two sound like married old couch potatoes fighting over the remote. If you're done just staring at the wall, I've already called everyone over to meet here to prep for landing."

No longer fazed by Coco's blunt approach, Jaune merely raised a brow as he turned to Blake with a knowing smile, "_Heh_, just staring at the wall, eh?"

Blake immediately caught on, going along with Jaune's idea as she focused on Coco with a smirk, "_Observe_."

* * *

**Name: Coco Adel  
****Class: The Brute****  
****Level: Lv24 _(Nxt lvl: 98.6%)_  
Rank: B_ (Att: B | Def: D | Sem: A)  
_****Race: Human  
****Title:_ Fashionista Fatale  
_****Attributes: Smooth, Charismatic, Lethal**

**...**

**HP: 1500/1500  
****AP: 1250/1250**

**...**

**STR: 52**

**VIT: 39**

**DEX: 27**

**INT: 23**

**WIS: 14**

**LUK: 21**

**...**

**Status: Status Effect _[On Point _(high)_]_**

**Background: A ****very confident individual, her self-assurance is expressed on and off the battlefield. Has consistent experience with Grimm both in childhood and alongside her trusted Beacon team, though occasionally freezes at masked hordes due to a home invasion during childhood. Has fashion strongly integrated into personality from mother's side, generating a soft spot around the subject in which it is advised not to aggravate. ****Possesses super-human strength and intermediate knowledge of martial arts from father's side, as her weapon requires a high STR threshold to be handled even in handbag form. **

**Easily becomes grumpy without a steady supply of chocolate.**

**Emotions: Indifference. Indifference. Grumpy.**

* * *

"So, you get your fashion sense from your mother's side," Blake began, reading off the information as Jaune did the same and continued.

"And you get your insanely high strength from your dad..."

"Sooo," Coco drawled as she idly raised a brow, wiggling the toothpick she was currently chewing on at the side of her mouth, "Your Semblance gives you the ability to become Captain Obvious. I'm floored."

"You've also had quite a bit of experience with Grimm in childhood," Jaune added, a brow raised in faint surprise, "Which I figure is why you didn't have problem getting up close and personal with them at the pavilion a few weeks ago."

"You grew up outside of the kingdoms; Grimm incursions and home invasions are common where there isn't a strong police force or Hunter population to respond quickly enough," Blake deduced finally, causing the second-year student to stop fiddling with the toothpick and let it hang to the side, "Surely, your parents were a great aid in your upbringing against Grimm due to your style."

Coco's naturally straight posture began to slouch a bit as she began, "I grew up in a small town called Saumur... well outside the kingdom of Vacuo. My dad was an aura user that held Grimm back while Hunters came to help when I was little... and, I was his apprentice until we had a robbery by several masked gunmen one night. He was crippled protecting me and my mom in the house from them. How did you-?"

Coco was interrupted by a gust of wind that whistled through the small space, the three teens glancing at the stray rose petals that softly floated downwards before a second gust heralded the presence of the airship's fastest passenger.

"_There_ you guys are!" Ruby exclaimed with a triumphant grin before her beaming expression lost its shine at her teammate's and blonde interest's proximity to each other, "Are you two _always_ together or something?"

"Hey... what's that supposed to mean?" Jaune began, genuinely hurt at Ruby's combination of crossed arms and petulant pout of dejection, "You make it sound like we do this on purpose, it's not like it's important or anything!"

Blake scoffed, now crossing her own arms as she turned to glare at the knight who'd essentially brushed off their conversation in his defense. Raising his arms from his sides in confusion, Jaune glanced at Coco, who merely crossed her arms with a scoff of her own.

"That's a problem for you to settle on your own, buddy."

"I don't even know what the problem_ is!_"

Letting out a sigh, Blake was the first to drop the glare before rolling her eyes, "How about we just tell you when you're older."

"That _literally_ doesn't solve anything," Jaune huffed, letting his arms noisily drop to his sides as Ruby snorted in response.

"Well _deal_ with it," Ruby stated in explication, "Cuz Yang _still_ tells me stuff like that and I have to spend the whole day trying to figure out what she was talking about..."

"And I'll _continue_ telling you stuff like that until you're forty~ Or married. Whichever comes _second_," Yang stated brightly as she appeared around the corner to strut into the area until hitting the invisible wall of tension in the small room, "Uhh... did I miss something here?"

Four nods confirmed the affirmative before she crossed her arms under her bust with a confident smirk at the knight, "Still don't get it, eh Saber-boy? C'mon girls, cut 'im a break... his Semblance is awesomeness, not telepathy."

Ruby let out a long huff before nodding in understanding, Blake still looking to the side cross-armed with a small miffed grunt of annoyance as Jaune smiled at his savior.

"Thanks, Yang."

"Well, that's what _friends_ are for... right?"

"You said it!" Jaune stated with a relieved chuckle, even Coco now pinching the bridge of her nose with an annoyed sigh as she caught his springing of the blonde brawler's little trap.

Even Blake couldn't help a slightly impish smirk at Yang's failed attempt to gain an advantage over them, content to know that the brawler at least was faring no better in gaining Jaune's undivided attentions than the catgirl herself. No sooner did Blake stiffen up at the realization of the thought that'd crossed her mind when the rest of the students came filing in.

"Should be everyone, rounded up as asked," Velvet began, her chipper demeanor contrasting with her leader's own.

"Thank Oum," Coco muttered before directing herself to the teams, "Alright, ladies. We've got another minute or so to touchdown, so brace yo-"

**_SHOOM_**

The entire aircraft lurched again as it landed, the miffed leader readjusting her glasses with a controlled sigh as she hedged, "That _seriously_ needs to stop happening."

As she watched the side doors begin to creak open, Blake felt a gingerly tap on her shoulder, turning to see the blonde knight with an apologetic smile in earnest as they stood first in line at the doors with everyone behind them.

"Hey... um, I'm real sorry for a minute ago. If I promise to figure out how not to do it again, do I get a pass on the glares and silent treatment?"

Blake made to open her mouth but suddenly found herself holding back from chuckling as he slowly lifted up a small, scraggly flower which was clearly half-wilted with a barely-restrained chortle of his own.

"H-How long have you had that on you?" Blake asked, amber eyes glinting in amusement as the light came in on them both over the opening doors.

"Couple days. Picked it for you before we left Beacon. Meant to give it to you as a 'sorry for the leggings' thing. Kinda forgot. Remembered now. We good?"

"Gimme that," Blake quickly muttered, snatching the flower and placing it in a pocket on her V-neck jacket with the lightest of blushes lest anyone see the exchange, "...I still cannot fathom why it's impossible to stay mad at you."

"You... don't get flowers much?"

Blake's blush reddened a bit more.

Jaune grinned as the doors finally opened, the two teens having been close enough to each other that no one really noticed their movements. However, Jaune's internal elation at the successful plan withered as he looked around at the landing pad.

"Something's wrong."

Blake nodded, her eyes narrowing at the empty area as Coco leaned out of the side door keeping a hand on the side of the craft and took a glance around the area.

"No prof to welcome us. No thrum of students. Not even a breeze."

"How... very perceptive of you, Adel..."

Three glares, along with about seventeen others that bunched up behind them to try and see as well, focused on the minty-haired young woman who strutted towards the airship with a comfortable smirk on her face.

"I don't recall having met you," Coco noted as the girl continued coming closer, squinting behind her shades as she got a better look at the unknown person, "And where can I get eyes like _that?_"

She shrugged before adding casually, "Gotta kill a few people. Then you gotta get sent to a slam, where they tell you you'll never see daylight again. You dig up a doctor, and you pay him twenty large to do a surgical red-eye job on your eyeballs."

"So you can see who's sneaking up on you in the dark?" Jaune added, frankly a bit lost in curiosity himself at the young woman's interesting irises.

"Exactly. Like a faunus," she noted pointedly, glancing at Blake as she did so, "Name's Emerald. I heard some of you have already made an acquaintance with my ex-partner, Mercury..."

And just like that, Blake's entire demeanor changed to one of pointed rage, scowling with a hiss as she leapt out of the Bullhead and began walking ominously toward Emerald despite Jaune's protests.

"Blake, wait! You don't know what she can-"

"_Spinning Mana Arrow!_"

**_sssrak!  
sssrak!_**  
_**sssrak!  
CLING  
CLING  
CLING**_

No sooner had the bolts of energy made their way towards their target when Emerald whipped out twin daggers from hidden dual holsters from behind and slashed the arrows out of existence with a deep green glow surrounding her blades. Ticking her head to the side to give a single mildly-impressed nod, Emerald noted as Blake paused a few feet away from her, "Mana attacks, huh? Didn't see that one coming. I'm sure Mercury didn't either... judging by the marks we found in his leg. This, I will enjoy."

"Not as much as _I_," Blake growled as she pulled out Gambol Shroud from its previously summoned inventory hammerspace, "You will _pay_ for the faunus murders you committed just like he did!"

"Oh, _honey_," Emerald retorted with a raised brow and sarcastic tone, "It was just one faunus that _I_ know of. And I wouldn't exactly call it a murder... he put up such a terrible fight, I'd call it something more along the lines of _euthanization_."

Blake roared in fury as she leapt on the red-eyed fighter with both blades at the ready, the tan young woman literally chuckling aloud as she effortlessly countered the dual-wielding catgirl with her own dual-wielded falx weapons. But she didn't expect, however, the ravenette to begin glowing blue for a moment with a malicious smirk on her face.

"_POWER STRIKE!_"

Launching the dagger-wielder into the air with an unexpectedly powerful upwards slash of Gambol's sheath, Blake leapt up to follow with a devastating blow using the blade itself that sent her opponent flying back several dozen feet to land with a barely-composed three-point landing. Emerald glanced down at her forearm with a sneer as she noticed the sizeable gash her aura had already begun healing, turning back to face Blake with a huff as she stood up, "Been a long time since I seen my own blood. You'll regret that."

"No she won't."

Appearing at Blake's side was the blonde knight himself, brandishing Crocea Mors at the ready as the rest of teams JNPR, RWBY and even CRDL came up around them as well at the ready.

"Aw," Emerald retorted with a fake coo in condescension, "You guys are lining up and everything?~ Well, I suppose you're all excited..."

But confusing the students by actually holstering her weapons, Emerald gave them no time to react when she suddenly lit herself up in emerald aura and clapped her hands in front of her with a single command.

"..._Emerald SPLASH!_"

_**saksaksaksaksaksaksaksaksaksaksak...**_

Cries of pain littered the air as the Beacon and Haven students were hit with a hail of dagger-like shards of Aura that tore through their defenses, Jaune quickly cradling the heavily cut ravenette in his hands as he looked her over with alarm.

"The attack... it went through your Aura like nothing!" the panicked knight began as he realized that even with a Gamer's Body, Blake still bled like she ever did.

"Well, it's only level three, after all," she retorted weakly before glancing up at the attacker who was now descending upon the pair with killing intent.

"Nope!" Yang cried out, blindsiding and bashing the girl out of the air despite her own injuries, her flaming Aura providing the rage-monster-like energy she needed to push forward as Ruby appeared in a flurry of scythe slashes to further bar Emerald's path to them.

Looking around at the fractured teams as members tended to their wounded around them, Jaune took in his surroundings in the heat of the moment, seeing Ren looking over Nora, Coco looking over an injured Velvet and Fox, Neptune and Scarlet looking over a downed Sun and Sage, and Weiss helping out her teammates, Yatsuhashi, and Pyrrha against Emerald's subsequently evasive fighting tactics. If it were ever obvious that these teams were comprised of mere students, it was now... leaders torn between objectives as their teams lay scattered and fractured, the few able-bodied fighters remaining resorting to throwing themselves at the enemy without a firm course of action. It was understandable in the saddest of ways, for most had received considerable damage from the girl's debilitating attack that gave her the edge against so many.

_Most_.

Having seen enough, Jaune turned back to Blake with an expression that she knew meant he'd already noticed something, "I'll be back. Stay here, heal up, use Vecchian Recovery."

Unable to protest within logical reason, Blake nodded as she readied to pull up her inventory and Jaune ran a hand trough her hair in an empathetic gesture before standing and rushing to his teammate.

"Pyrrha!"

The Mistrali turned to look at him as the rest of them worked to gain ground against the incredibly elusive fighter and he continued, "Come with me, that girl's gonna do way more damage if she uses her Semblance again!"

Without another word, Pyrrha followed her leader with a nod before they rushed to CRDL, three members helping a wounded Russell up before Cardin called out in anger to his fellow leader in the face of having his teammate wounded, "What _gives!_ This psycho's running around the place with a killer Semblance and none of the Professors're around to help!?"

"It's an illusion barrier!" the knight informed before Sky drew back in a mix of fear and confusion.

"A _what!?_"

"Subspace anomaly, can't explain!" Jaune quickly replied before pulling Cardin and pointing at Dove, "_You two,_ I know you'll understand me when I say this - I need you both to tank with me and Pyr in case Emerald tries using her Semblance again!"

"Are you crazy!?" Cardin quipped angrily as he yanked himself from Jaune's grip, the knight having none of it as his expression only sharpened with another string of blasts heard down the landing pad.

"No! Look at you two, you're each decked out in armor! Everyone without it was practically shredded alive, but the four of us suffered the least from it. _We, are, tanking. NOW!_"

Snapped into obedience, Cardin reluctantly nodded his assent to the blonde and then to his teammate, patting Sky in indication of his new role as temporary guardian over their fourth member while his Aura did its work. The makeshift crew made their way back towards the fight, Emerald doing surprisingly well in holding them back. Jaune's eyes widened, however, as he noticed Emerald beginning to glow green again.

"No no no, everybody back!" he shouted, quickly placing Ruby behind him as Pyrrha, Cardin and Dove shoved their way forwards just in time to get in position for the Semblance-powered attack.

"_Emerald Splash!_"

**_saksaksaksaksaksaksaksaksaksaksak..._**

Having closed in enough while holding out their shields, pauldrons and weapons to protect themselves, the four students shielded the field behind them from a much stronger attack as Cardin gritted his teeth against the force.

Jaune could see a few stray shards of Emerald's Aura that bypassed his more limited shielding cutting against the brawny student's face as he growled, "_Please_ don't tell me you'll go Rambo on me if I beat up _this_ girl..."

Jaune and Pyrrha each traded a slightly incredulous expression before shaking their heads at the teen in tandem, Cardin wasting no time as soon as the attack died down to rush the girl with a yell and glowing mace. Slamming the mace into the floor, Emerald made to take advantage of the opening he created by slashing at his side but was countered by Dove's longsword, the gold-like metal singing with the clash of blades like its owner as the two traded a few more blows. Sticking to her guerilla-like tactics, Emerald made a string of somersaults backwards just as Ren and Nora leaped into the fray together, the tan fighter holding back the students with a surprise barrage of bullets from what turned out to be her pair of falx dagger _pistols_.

"I _really_ don't like her," Ruby huffed by Jaune's side as the students rushed by them, the crimsonette looking up at him with a relieved expression, "Thanks for the save, though."

"We're all gonna need a save if we can't figure out her weaknesses, though," Jaune noted flatly, trying to gauge a hitch in her form or opening in her defense but finding none.

Pyrrha nodded, adding informatively as they caught their breath, "It seems she is an expert at drawing out a battle with multiple enemies. She intends to tire us out and eliminate those too weak to withstand her Semblance."

"yeeeeep," Jaune hedged under his breath, turning to look over his shoulder as he continued aloud, "This'd actually be a really good time for-"

"Supergirl? ...I hate to disappoint."

Blake's entrance made with her flat remark, Jaune turned all the way around to see that the catgirl had stealthily appeared beside Ruby before she continued, "I saw what you did there. It seems that Emerald's aura easily passes through the Aura of others but had more difficulty passing through forged elements."

"You've got a skill to deal with that?" Ruby asked tiredly, leaning on her scythe as her aura continued working to repair her damaged legs. Blake narrowed her eyes on a few of the students before shaking her head.

"Not sure. But I have an idea."

Blake made to sprint over to the nearly-recovered team SSSN before turning to give Jaune a final remark, "Time to give my new WIS a field test."

Pyrrha gave the knight a slightly confused look as the ravenette made her way to Neptune and the recovering Sage, letting her gaze linger on him just a little longer in thought as he looked after Blake in curiosity before making her way back towards the fray joined by Cardin and Dove.

"What's she doing?" Ruby asked in curiosity as the area rumbled a bit under a salvo of what were likely Nora-grenades, Jaune looking on as the three students conversed in the distance and Blake was seen pointing at Emerald indicatively.

"I... think," he drawled before suddenly realizing what was going on as Neptune and Sage each stepped back in surprise at what seemed to the crimsonette like invisible objects floating in front of their faces. Jaune turned towards the fray to see Yang of all people with a similar reaction, dropping back from the fight as she scratched her head at something before he continued with an impressed smirk, "She's about to throw a heck of a party. How're your legs?"

The red-hooded leader looked down at herself, bouncing on her heels lightly a few times to test them out before giving him an assuring grin and thumbs up.

"Good. We might have to help cover for her, let's go!"

"What in the world, Blake!" Yang shouted as she jogged back to the group of three student several yards away, "Now's not exactly the time to go sending me weirdo game invites!"

"It's not just an invite!" the catgirl retorted hotly, not wasting time on pointless arguments as time and lives were on the line, "Did you accept it?"

"Yeah..."

"Good, then the three of you might want to brace yourselves... the idea should become pretty clear in a moment," Blake stated as she turned to face where Emerald was currently holding back the remaining students and took a deep breath, "_Aura Meld_."

A bright pale blue light quickly lit up all four students, drawing out their respective colored Auras and mixing them in with Blake's like some kind of color palette before a bright _ding_ was heard in their ears marking the success of the process.

**[_Aura Meld_ Completed!]**

* * *

**Blake Belladonna + Yang Xiao Long + Neptune Vasilias + Sage Aesop  
****AURA MELD _(4 in party)_  
****Party Name: _Earth, Wind &amp; Fire_****  
****Semblance Link: _Enabled_ | Battle Link: _Enabled_****  
Effect: _Elemental Burst Affinity_**

**...**

**HP: 5250/5250 _(1875+1425+900+1050)_  
****MP: 4973/5250 _(2000+1200+700+1350)_**

**...**

**ALLSTR: _+300%_**

**ALLVIT: _+250%_**

**ALLDEX: _+175%_**

**ALLINT: _+100%_**

**ALLWIS: _+65%_**

**ALLLUK: _+625%_**

**...**

**Time: 33s**

* * *

"...Party name. Who dunnit," Yang stated flatly, the first one to speak up at the stunned silence of the four teens to which Neptune meekly raised his hand. As if she already knew, the blonde brawler held out a fist which he bumped with his before Blake noticed Emerald look over towards the new power surge in the barrier.

"Everyone got an idea what we need to do?" Blake asked the trio, who now each paused and slowly nodded at each other with surprise at receiving what they somehow knew was the same idea at once, "Good. She's coming this way."

"We're gonna need some time to set this up!" Neptune exclaimed as Emerald quickly broke from the group of other students in a full sprint at Blake's team in a full sprint, outrunning bullets and all forms of projectiles as she left a cloud of dust in her wake.

"YATS, NOW!"

The four teens turned to their left to see Jaune pointing the samurai towards the tan fighter, the student nodding in accordance and lifting his massive broadsword to bring it down with a massive shockwave that crumbled up Emerald's path and forced her to slow as Jaune called out the next move, "_Ruby, vacuum!_"

"Right!" the crimsonette exclaimed, stashing her weapon and immediately sprinting in nigh-supersonic circles around the fighter enough to disorient her momentarily.

Blake gave Jaune a single nod before turning to her party, the others already knowing what to do as Emerald regained her footing and faced them with a sneer as she began glowing green.

"Ruby, get back!" Yang yelled, her sibling clearing out just as the red-eyed fighter stood over a jagged protrusion and clapped her hands at the party.

"Emerald _Splash!_"

In tandem with the last word, Sage let out a yell as he curb-stomped the ground in front of him, causing a massive earth wall to come up in front of them that absorbed the entirety of the girl's attack. The partners giving each other a nod, Blake began whisking her arms around herself, seemingly gathering air with wide motions around herself and Yang which the brawler lit up with her fiery aura. The fiery wind coalescing around the girls' fists with whirling abandon, each woman let out a yell as they literally punched the entire wall off its foundation that now hurdled at the fighter as a single earthen slab.

However, the four watched Emerald appear over the top of the massive projectile in mid back-flip, her back nearly grazing the highest tip of the slab before twisting herself to land on her feet.

"Neptune, now!"

The Havenite pulling down his goggles, Neptune began making whisking motions with his arms much like Blake, except in his case he began pulling moisture from the surrounding air to crate long whips of crystalline water which he now sent en masse to Emerald's landing spot to turn the area into mud. Landing in the mud with a loud slosh, Emerald began to pick up her front leg when Sage held both hands out with a grimace, the mud now moving like putty under an invisible potter's hand to crawl upwards and begin to encase the surprised fighter.

"I'm sure there's a geology pun for that somewhere," Yang noted as Emerald was now completely encased in stone, "She wasn't _gneiss_, so we were forced to beat the _schist_ out of her?"

"Oh Oum, it's in my _head!_" Neptune complained loudly at the terrible pun with both hands at his temples before the bomber narrowed her eyes at the increasingly solid formation.

"Sage, it's done. You can stop now..."

"Sage," Blake repeated, her gaze sharpening on the teen who was beginning to smirk at his work, his outheld hands tightening into fists as the formation around Emerald continued to tighten, "_Sage!_"

"Blake, he's going to petrify her!" Yang stated after holding a hand to her temples to sense the teen's motives, the catgirl scowling before clenching her own fists.

"_Leave Party!_"

**_DING!_**

**[_Aura Meld_ Dispelled!]**

And just like that, the aural glow surrounding the four students ceased, each letting out an exhale as the power left them and Sage glanced at his hands upon realizing he was no longer able to finish the deed.

"Wot wos _that_ about, I almost _had_ the bloody wench!" Sage cried out angrily, turning to face the catgirl and taking a single step forward as the remaining students approached before a single sound tore through the air.

_**BLAM**_

Every head turned to see the head of the new rock formation being blown completely off its body in a shower of dust and rocky debris by what looked like a dark shotgun held at the hands of a smirking Scarlet from behind.

"That settles that," the girl decked in red and white noted before reverting Hikou Houki to its normal form and walking toward the group, "No more point in arguing."

"What!? There's a _whole_ lot to argue about now!" Jaune yelled uncharacteristically, angered in front of others for what many had seen for the first time as he stepped towards her, "She was immobilized, there was _no reason_ to kill her!"

"Hey, how 'bout you save the righteous fury crap for your _own_ team!" Sun stated as he now walked over by Scarlet's side, glancing sharply at Blake before looking back at the blonde leader, "Or anyone _else_ who likes listening to it, for that matter. _I'll_ take care of my own!"

"So does that involve condoning the taking of lives?" Pyrrha added sharply as she approached Jaune's side, the situation escalating as none of the other students knew what to do, "That makes us no better than those we struggle against if we stoop down to their levels!"

"That's a load of codswallop!" Sage now growled as Scarlet continued for him, three facing off two as she held a glowing red finger at the Arkos partners.

"Sage's right. That's nothing but an _ideal_. It may be how you do things here in Beacon, but not at _Haven_. In Mistral, what we do is morally indefensible... but _absolutely necessary_. It's probably why Invincible Girl here pussied out and came to Beacon instead."

"That has nothing to do with anything!" Pyrrha stated in reply, her brows furrowing with anger at the insult as Neptune approached the group on his team's side in an attempt to keep the peace.

"Alright, it doesn't. But personal viewpoints aside, how did you guys plan on handling her after this was all said and done if it took more than a dozen of us to take her down in the end?"

"_Together_," a slightly bloodied Ren noted firmly as he and his partner came up to Jaune and Pyrrha's side, to which Sun scoffed.

"Then you guys would've been beat down twice as bad, if not worse!"

"Then we'd have done that together, too," Nora added softly, the hammer maiden barely able to hold up her weapon anymore but trading a small smile with her partner at their efforts.

"And it's not like you guys could've done any better yourselves," Yang now stated, breaking the back and forth between both teams and taking the brunt of the combined attention without a care, "It's thanks to _Blake_ that we had a chance to hold her before she caused anymore damage!"

"Might wanna gen up before ye start yer chin-waggin' there, bonnie blondie," Sage noted gruffly before pointing at the catgirl, "_She_ wanted the wench to bite the dust as much as _we_ did. I sensed it in the meld, don't act like ye didn't too."

Faces began turning towards the conflicted ravenette before a reprieve was granted from an unlikely source.

"Quick question," Weiss suddenly began as she looked around at the still-silent area surrounding the groups, "If Emerald made the illusion barrier... how's it still intact?"

The current argument was now placed on the back burner as deceptively sultry laughter echoed through the air, every student arming themselves as they looked around for its source.

"Silly children... it's because it wasn't her illusion barrier to begin with~"

Several flashes of light suddenly coursed between the students, four of the team leaders crying out in pain as they weren't quick enough to completely dodge the foreign projectiles that practically appeared from thin air. Ruby, however, dodged the attack with her Semblance, narrowing her eyes as she recognized the crystalline shard embedded in the ground where she'd been standing a moment before.

"_Glass_ Dust..."

As every team rushed to their leaders, their gazes were then attracted upwards as a woman appeared over the Bullhead in a small plume of fire, the crimsonette pointing at her immediately in anger, "_You_ were the one who infiltrated the CCT that night!"

The woman in the striking red dress, her eyes seemingly blazing even in the mid-day light, cocked her head a bit at the little girl before letting a smirk grow on her flawless features, "...Clever girl. Though you'll have to excuse me, I'll deal with the rest of you children after I'm done borrowing a moment of your teammate's time~"

Following the woman's pointed glance at the catgirl, the students were once again forced to fall back as the woman shot out an impossibly large fireball to separate them, the action creating a wall of fire from what barely amounted to a flick of her bangled wrist. Wasting no time, Blake began sprinting ahead of the stretching wall of flames towards team CVFY as she called up her inventory.

**[Inventory]**

**_Equipment_**

**| Bow | O |Comb|  
****|Blazer | /X\ |Blouse|  
****| Dress Shoes | /\ |Uniform Skirt|**

**_Weapons_**

**|...| |...|**

**|Schnee Dust Ammo Clips _x12_| |Standard Ammo Clips_ x08_|**

**_Items (Page 1)_**

**|Recovery Potion _x45_| |Unknown Item _x1_|**

**|Green Dust Crystal _x24_| |Fifty Shades of Grey_ x1_|**

Pulling out as many crystals and potions as she could handle, Blake began chucking them towards Velvet on the other side of the wall, the wide-eyed girl who'd been cared for by her leader after Emerald's attack now finding their roles reversed as the catgirl yelled, "Apply the green crystals first and the potions as necessary! Use Vecchian Recovery!"

The ravenette watched the crystals and vials, thankfully sturdy enough to handle the toss, fall and roll over to her fellow faunus-girl before the wall of fire closed her off from everyone else even despite her team's best efforts. Blake could hear Weiss' yelling and Yang's muffled cursing on the other side of the wall before an idle chuckle from behind caused the catgirl to turn with a scowl.

"Prolonging their pain with a few special remedies? How thoughtful," the woman noted with an almost playfully smooth tone before adding more directly, "But a Semblance that grants its user with hammerspace? That can be a _very_ useful asset for us."

"Again with the third-person talk," Blake growled as she put two and two together, "I'm sure Roman's had plenty of time to tell you I _refused_ your offer!"

"No, I heard it myself at Lambent," she continued, her smirk only growing wider as she noticed Blake's grip tightening on her weapon held in either hand, "Let's just say that after watching your impressive performance, we decided to follow up with a second opportunity from someone of a... _higher_... standing, within The Company."

"And what. They thought that by making it sound nicer I'd change my mind?"

"No," the woman idly stated as a ball of fire appeared over her hand, "But sending in someone with the authority to end your life upon refusal might."

Upon the mention of authority, Blake's eyes widened momentarily before focusing on the woman's head, her scowl deepening as the information requested was provided. Somewhat.

**|?|  
LV? Cinder Fall**

Blake pointed at the woman whose name was Cinder as she called out angrily, "Then _you_ are The Red Queen! The _only_ offer I'd accept from you is that you tell me how to dispel the curse on Jaune while you writhe in pain at his feet!"

Genuinely taken aback at the sudden outburst, a short pause hung in the air before Cinder let out a hearty chortle, the inflection on what would normally be a disturbing action sounding sickeningly sweet to the ravenette's ears as the woman held an arm across her abdomen to steady herself, "A, A _Red Queen?_ Hah, my goodness! And what am I supposed to say, _'Off with your head'_?"

Finally taking a calm breath to compose herself, Cinder concluded as her eyes and hand seemed to light up in flame, "As for the hapless knight, I'm sure whatever curse of which you speak won't matter much longer. I'll ensure he suffers that same fate as you and everyone else he-"

_**ssssshhhhhh-CHWAKKK!**_

The enchantress' words were cut short when a streak of pale green and blue came down from directly above, landing next to Blake with enough force to cause a large web of cracks on the ground before standing.

"I sensed an unusual Mana spike on campus and arrived as quickly as I could!"

"Penny!?" Blake cried out, wide-eyed even as Cinder merely cocked her head at the new arrival.

"A synthetic Aura user? Interesting..."

"And a pyrokinetic enemy," Penny retorted as she turned to face the woman with a threatening glare, "I believe that will suffice for introductions."

"Oh?" Cinder replied, a brow raised in slight amusement as if it were someone making a common mistake with her name, "My Semblance certainly isn't pyrokinesis..."

Letting the flame die out on her upheld hand, fire was replaced with a fiery glyph as a pitch-black shortsword appeared in the air through an identical glyph over her head.

"..._My_ Semblance is _Projection_, of any item or article my mind can imagine. I certainly wouldn't mind giving a demonstration~"

"Penny, you'll want to stay back for this," Blake warned as she made to stand in front of the girl while slinging Gambol behind her back, her hands beginning to glow a pale blue when Penny placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'm combat ready!"

"This isn't like... the _docks_," Blake began to snap back quickly, wisely replacing the incident which Ozpin had already erased from the girl's memory with what else she knew about her.

"And neither am I," she retorted, a wide grin on her face as something on her back seemed to open up, "I've received further upgrades over the past day which I intend to use to the full!"

Seeing the once-familiar swords come out, Blake blanched at the immensely increased size of them, each sword hilt replaced with what looked like a glowing blue orb that pulsed on time with a smaller pearl-like orb Blake noticed Penny wearing as an earring. And without another word, Penny thrust her arms forward to use three of her swords to deflect three obsidian blades which Cinder launched at them.

"Not bad," Cinder noted as she held out a hand and a dozen cylindrical orange glyphs appeared over her, each one with the tip of an identical obsidian sabre sticking out, "Your pitiful offense may provide me some entertainment after all..."

Turning to face Penny as her three swords sailed around the area and returned to their owner with range that far exceeded the originals, Blake nodded with a plan, "Fine. You stay here and tank while I go kite her by spamming her with Mana Arrows, got it?"

Penny raised a brow at the catgirl, giving a slow nod in slight confirmation before turning her sights on the woman with a growing grin.

"_I once had strings, but now I'm free_~" Penny began in a slow, hushed sing-song voice as the blue-orbed weapons around her somehow multiplied by the dozens and aimed at their target, "_There are no strings on me_~"

**_SSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEE!_**

The whistling of dozens of silver swords through the air, each one running on a single green data-line powered by a blue orb, compounded to form a metallic scream as they clashed with Cinder's projectiles, each blade holding firm as Blake sprinted to the side dodging extra swords before getting into position.

"_Spinning Mana Arrow!_"

**_sssrak!  
sssrak!  
sssrak!_**

Cinder didn't even turn her head to have three more orange glyph portals shooting out obsidian swords at the catgirl's projectiles... but what _did_ cause her to turn her head towards Blake with a grimace was when both the arrows and the swords were completely obliterated on contact. The red-haired girl holding her ground as she rained her plethora of weapons on Cinder, Blake went around Cinder's blindspots, calling out her arrows mid-sprint as she went along.

"_Spinning Mana Arrow!_"

"_Spinning Mana Arrow!_"

"_Spinning Mana Arrow!_"

_**PING!**_

**[_Spinning Mana Arrow_'s level has risen by 1.]**

_**PING!**_

**[_Spinning Mana_ _Arrow_'s level has risen by 1.]**

'Interesting,' Blake mused as she continued kiting the woman from behind as three arrows fired per summoning became _four_, 'Destroying just her projectiles seems to give me substantial amounts of EXP. Queen or not... she is no normal Boss...'

"My offer still stands," Cinder drawled as a snap of her fingers summoned another hail of swords from glyph-like portals, pushing the redhead back with the volume of attacks and forcing the catgirl to draw her weapon to deflect swords that weren't destroyed by arrows, "But it will last only as long as my patience. I merely advise you don't wear it thin with this pointless squabble."

Without a response, Blake and Penny continued their onslaught, Cinder seeming to not break a sweat as every minute or so she'd readjust her footing slightly to keep her endless flow of projectiles coming against Penny's unbroken blades and Blake's Mana attacks. But to the ravenette's favor, the notification she'd been waiting for finally popped up after several minutes of firing, dodging, and deflecting.

_**PING!**_

**[_Spinning Mana_ _Arrow_'s level has risen by 1.]**

_**DING!**_

**[_Auto-Fire_ unlocked!]**

"Hah! _Engage Auto-Fire!_"

And from five constantly flowing axis' of spinning energy, a hail of arrows denser than even Penny's attacks began barraging Cinder's defenses, the woman genuinely surprised by the augmentation of energy that threatened to close in on her position in the center of the ring of fire she'd created. However, in turning to Blake to redirect her attacks appropriately, Cinder didn't see a small monocle expand and settle over Penny's eye that lit up with a crosshair grid, the girl letting the tip of her tongue point out the side of her lips as she carefully aimed a single sword through the hail of weapons and fired. Rebounding over and under several obsidian swords with calculated deflections, the sword managed to graze the woman's arm and cause a restrained growl of pain to escape Cinder's lips.

Checking the cut which healed with a lick of her fiery Aura in less than another second, Cinder's eyes blazed before she unleashed twin plumes of flames that literally ate through both girl's attacks and blasted them back several feet on either side of her. Blake was silently thankful that both she and Penny had the mana reserves to shield themselves from the fatal attack, and as both girls tried and failed to stand with the edges of their clothes smoldering or otherwise frayed, Cinder raised her voice for the first time.

"Enough! I've given you _more_ than enough time to reconsider, you mewling quim. I'll let you consider your mistakes as I send your sniveling friend to the junkyard whence she came!"

Glancing back at Penny as an impossibly bright fireball charged in her hand, Cinder was about to complete the attack when she was suddenly interrupted by the increasing rumbling of the ground beneath them.

**_GGGGGRRRRRAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRRR!_**

And to Blake's utter surprise, through the wall of flames came the massive hulk of what could be described as little else than a Grimm _Dinosaur_, Cinder easily ducking under its snapping jaws only to be swatted away by its clawed arm.

"Adominous Rex... always a trusted companion."

Calmly walking through the flames next was none other than Ozpin himself, the man settling down and leaning with both hands on his cane as he watched Cinder fry his monster alive with a potent blast of flame.

"O-Ozpin?"

"_Ozpin!_" Penny echoed Blake's words, except with a significantly noticeable sharpness as she finally managed to stand. However, Ozpin merely held out a hand to stay her, his gaze not straying from the woman who now began to levitate in the air with the sheer heat and power of the fire around her.

As she stood up, even Blake stared with incredulity at the man who, despite all Cinder's current display of frankly terrifying power, only looked at the woman with what almost came across as disappointment.

"You are not the one I was expecting."

Cinder scowled, the creases formed by it marring the ever-present beauty of her features as the fire around her began to dim until she resumed her usual placid countenance, "Well. As much as I'd love to make you regret that remark, _Emmanuel_... I believe I've learned enough and lost enough resources today to waste any more of my time here."

With that, an eerie red portal opened up behind the woman, but not before the Headmaster got in the final word with a ghost of a smug smirk on his face.

"Needless to say, Miss Fall... your access privileges to Beacon Academy as a visiting Haven student have hereby been revoked."

Blake could've sworn she'd heard an annoyed scoff from the woman before she disappeared into the portal, turning to see Penny still glaring daggers at the man.

"This changes nothing between us. I will continue to search for the missing Councilmen until they're found!"

"No doubt you will, Miss Polendina," the Headmaster stated with a nod before the girl shook her head and turned to quite literally blast off out of the illusion barrier.

As Blake looked up at her, wondering if the small rockets that had literally just come out of that girl's boots were recent upgrades as well, she heard Ozpin mutter, "Her father will be proud to hear about this one..."

But the girl now out of sight and out of mind, Blake focused her attention on the Headmaster, the lights of Cinder's wall of flames still encircling him and lighting his features in a way she couldn't decide was adulatory or sinister, "_You_..."

"Am after the same thing you are, Miss Belladonna," he cut in, surprising the catgirl with his calm tone of voice as he motioned with his cane to the spot where Cinder had disappeared, "After the same _person_, actually. But only until now do I realize how parallel our endeavors run..."

Blake stared at him, the cogs whirring furiously in her head before he ended the suspense for her.

"I know about Arc. Always have."

Pausing for effect as he watched her jaw slacken, Ozpin sighed and resumed his usual stance as he elaborated, "Almost a year ago, I was approached by an old friend and comrade who told me a story about a witch and an heir. Despite my initial disbelief, his continued explanation fell more in line with increasing paranormal activity - even for _our_ world - which myself and a small team of trusted Hunters had been investigating for a few years prior. This man's name, as you may know him, is Tobin Arc."

"You... know about the curse?" Blake asked, downright stupefied with the turn of events, and admittedly with the increasing accuracy of Jaune's prediction which was gnawing at the back of her mind, "Knew about it... this whole time?"

"Yes. I understand that this may continue to vex you for some time, but ties between myself and the Arc line have always run deep. One may even venture to say that I am Jaune's estranged godfather, in a way. The curse Tobin described _will_ kill Mister Arc unless it is removed... and seeing how you've fought for what can only be the same purpose, I'm earnestly glad to say that you may be the key to drawing out the _true_ Red Queen in a way that none of the others could."

"Others?" the catgirl echoed, more invested in processing the information than making a halfway decent question.

"Yes, a few very powerful entities in Remnant. Families, mostly, like the Arcs," Ozpin explained before looking around and back to Blake, "But that is enough for now. You are not to tell Mister Arc of any of these designs, for our need for anonymity is of utmost importance since unlocking his true potential will be paramount to our survival if conflict breaks out between the Queen and Remnant's four kingdoms."

Blake made to protest but was cut off when the Headmaster lifted his cane an inch or so off the floor and brought it down with an augmented blast, the air waves snuffing out the walls of flames around them as one would a candlelight to reveal the mostly-recovered teams around them.

"Blake! Thank Oum you're okay!" Ruby yelped before speed-hugging the surprised ravenette from a distance, the catgirl herself resigning herself to the sudden contact as Yang walked over and gripped them both in an uncomfortably close bear hug.

"Yang... please get your breast out of my face," Blake choked out before the blonde let them go, revealing the heiress behind her quickly hiding a concerned expression with her usual neutral one as Ruby cleared her throat at Weiss.

"It's... nice to see you're alright, Belladonna."

Blake let out a brief smile before nodding, "I'll accept that."

But now speaking up at the Headmaster, Velvet stood up after having given Sun the last of the recovery vials, "Where did the woman go? Were you able to apprehend her?"

"I'm afraid not, Miss Scarlatina. She was surprisingly elusive and managed to escape shortly after my arrival... thankfully, I confronted her soon enough to ensure Miss Belladonna's safety."

"Wow Blake, and to think you were able to hold her off long enough for Ozpin to get there, too!" Ruby gushed with awe at the ravenette, "I mean, I remember her now from that one time she even held back Miss Goodwitch after a robbery! I mean, I was in the way kinda, but I remember she was super strong! Which means you're awesome! Now we _really_ gotta see what your Semblance can do when we get the chance during a team hunt, and..."

As the crimsonette went on, Blake couldn't help but multitask, scrutinizing the Headmaster as he walked on to ensure the other students were alright. Had they really not seen the giant extinct animal, a _Grimm_ no less, charging into the fray? They didn't seem surprised to see the Headmaster, so she figured he must've made an appearance before crossing Cinder's flames. Blake sighed, concluding that he'd likely strategically placed the glyph so no one could see it like he'd done in the courtyard against Penny a day or so ago in a way that the glyph was within the wall of flames, before her musing was cut short by Sun's sudden exclamation.

"Wait, what!?" he noted loudly, clearly having just regained his strength after having healed up from the shard of glass that had passed through his side, "Couldn't you have just shot her with one of your super-bullets before she got away!?"

Unfazed by the direct affront, Ozpin merely returned to his usual pose with his cane making a small click as it was placed in position in front of him, a small click from the deceptively frail walking aid that nearly caused many of the students to gulp involuntarily.

"Mister Wukong, I believe. Hmm... I take it you're a man of cards, correct?"

"_Maybe_," the student retorted sharply in a defiant manner before glancing to his side and softening up at the deadpan his partner was giving him, "Well, yeah..."

"Then I believe the saying goes, _Never play an Ace when a Two will do_," and pausing to let the enigmatic words of wisdom sink in, the Headmaster then spoke up to the rest of the students, "This woman, known to most as Cinder Fall, is a notoriously dangerous member of an organization we know next to nothing about. An organization we must expose at all costs. But rest assured that she will not be causing any more problems anytime soon."

"How can you be so sure?" Jaune now asked, Pyrrha close by his side.

"In terms of strategy with which _I'm_ more familiar with," Ozpin continued directly at the knight, his expression making no visible change as he did so, "_Placement_. Whoever is truly behind these recent events is rather fond of it, and after the valiant effort each of you all showed yesterday against incredible odds with your display of sheer will and camaraderie, they will likely need time to reorganize."

"So, we take advantage and don't _let_ them get us!" Sky shouted from the side of the group, his teammates nodding in agreement as Russell voiced his opinion.

"Yeah, we get the getters _first!_"

"Pretty much. We get the getters before we get got."

Nearly every head turned to the fox-faunus who had uttered the last statement, Coco visibly looking up and rolling his words through her mind before offering him a fist-bump with an impressed nod.

But interjecting before any more comments could be made, Ozpin continued, "As much as I too would love to end this situation once and for all, we now know that this goes beyond Vale. Beyond Beacon. And if this truly is part of some master plan for which we know not the final move, we cannot risk the spread of panic by being so bold."

"So we wait?" Yang summed up aloud, her demeanor clearly showing her displeasure with the idea.

"No. You _regroup_," Ozpin countered, a tinge of restrained emotion coming through his likely distaste of the notion that was enough to immediately quell the brawler's qualm, "And in the meantime, I recommend none of you speak of this until we can have authorities who specialize in these phenomena to piece together and explain these occurrences."

"Fine by _me_. Matter of fact, me and my team won't even get into your hair anymore," Sun spat out, looking around at everyone present and letting his gaze linger on Blake's just a second longer before rehardening his gaze on the Headmaster, "I think I've had just about enough of Vale for a single lifetime. We'll see you guys at the tournament."

Momentarily stunned by the change in direction the conversation had taken, Cardin was the next to crack, "Look. I get where the Haven guy's coming from. In our case, me and my guys are way outclassed here... I'm only gonna get one or all of us killed if I keep us here. This just ain't our fight."

Ozpin let out a small exhale through his nose at the defection of one of his own teams of students before noting, "Very well. Nevertheless, you four have done your part, and I will ensure Professor Dandelion learns of the developments and of your success in the field. My only counsel will be to continue progressing, and honing your minds and bodies in the event that it _becomes_ your fight in the future."

The silver-haired man then turned to glance at the second-year leader who merely popped a bubble of bubble gum in her mouth before shrugging, "Don't get me wrong, me and mine gotta regroup after a mission like this... but we'll be ready if you need us."

"Same here," Jaune noted with a nod, Ruby emulating him in the same way with a small smile of her own.

"Here, too."

"Good," Ozpin noted with a reserved smile at the three remaining teams before looking up at the already cracking massive spatial construct around them, "Some of you may know this already, but we are currently in an illusion barrier, another of the paranormal abilities we've discovered that creates cross-dimensional space which few understand and even fewer have mastered over the past five years or so... this one is about to come down, so it'd be a good idea to make your way around the back of ADA lest any passersby wonder how so many students suddenly appeared out of thin air."

The students did as they were told, staying silent as they made their way behind the Titan-class Bullhead. Blake could hear some hushed whispering, turning to see that it was coming from a conversation between Neptune and Sun when they got to the airship before the blue-haired Havenite threw up his arms in a silent show of frustration. Blake watched Neptune calmly drag a hand down his face before he walked over to where Weiss was standing, the two speaking for a few moments before he pointed at his scroll and the heiress nodded somberly before they each traded a long embrace.

It didn't take much of the catgirl's recently-boosted Wisdom to figure out that the duo which Yang had taken to nicknaming_ Iceberg_ behind their backs wouldn't be chatting face-to-face for a while. But surprised to feel a tug at her own sleeve, Blake turned with a small smile, expecting it to be the knight but hesitating as it turned out to be the red-haired Havenite.

"Saw what you did back there," Scarlet began in a low tone, her brow raised suggestively but elaborating before the catgirl could question her, "Against the chick with the . What you got is something like what Sage has... if you learn how to use it right, then with the right kinds of Dust in the mix, you'll be able to do much more than just shoot some arrows. I'll be happy to teach you sometime."

Blake was somewhat conflicted as to how to respond to the volatile young woman, but her curiosity won the better of her as she took the scroll number that Scarlet then offered to her without a word.

The loud cracking of glass was finally heard around them, a few students looking unsure of the development before Ruby calmed them down and led them out to see that the school now looked as normal as it ever did. No cracked landing pad, no grenade craters, no scorch marks. But Blake had failed to notice the knight had indeed caught her interaction with Scarlet after all.

"Alllright!" Ruby exclaimed happily as each team now headed their own way, the three young women around her granting her varying degrees of attention as she rubbed her hands together in anticipation, "_So_, in my most recent thinkings as team leader, I've decided that tomorrow we do a team training session using Blake's Semblance so we can learn to work with it during future fights!"

"Getting a little excited there, dontcha think, Rubes?" Yang teased with a playful smirk before adding, "_Buuuuut_, that Aura Mush-"

"_Meld_," Blake corrected with a deadpan, the blonde brawler rolling her eyes before she continued.

"That Aura Meld thing was pretty cool. I'd kinda wanna see what it's like with the four of us linked. You know, without any psycho students added in the mix."

The three girls nodded in unison before glancing at the silent heiress who was currently palming her scroll as if it'd vibrate at any second. As they entered the building and neared their dorm, Weiss finally spoke up, nearly too quietly to be heard at first.

"Was it true?"

"Ehh, wha wazzat?" Ruby quickly mumbled, pausing as she had been reaching out to swipe her scroll to unlock their door back at her partner.

But keeping her sights set on the target of her question, Weiss repeated herself to the silent catgirl, "Was it true that you wanted Emerald to die? Sage had said it, he said he felt your intentions through the meld..."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Yang asked, narrowing her eyes at the unusually soft-spoken Ice Queen. Blake's eyes began narrowing as well, if only because she could already discern where the young woman was taking this.

"Because if Blake's ability can transfer ideas, then her intentions may have easily influenced his actions! If it hadn't been for that, then he wouldn't have done what he did. If he hadn't done what he did, no one would've argued. And if no one would've argued, then... then..."

"Ookay time to divert the feels!" Ruby quickly muttered before swiping the scroll on the door and dragging Weiss into the room, a slightly surprised Yang and Blake listening on the other side of the door in the hallway as Ruby sealed herself in the room to take the brunt of the heiress' impending outburst.

"It's _her_ fault! I don't know what that ability does, but I'm not going to simply_ open my mind_ to someone who _clearly_ still has homicidal tendencies even after all these months! If it weren't for _her_, Neptune would still be _here!_"

"Hey," Yang began softly, the warm presence of the brawler's hand on her shoulder causing the ravenette to realize how tightly she'd been clenching her fists, "You know she probably doesn't mean any of that, right?"

A soft glare from the catgirl.

"_Most_ of that, right?" Yang continued after making the small amendment, "Look, she's still learning how to open up about her own feelings, and I don't think she's had a lot of experience with boy troubles yet. Just give it a little while and I'm sure she'll come around."

"Please forgive me if I'm not so optimistic," Blake began to retort flatly but caught herself, glancing aside and scratching the back of her head with a huff, "Either way, it's probably best I steer clear of the dorm for a little while."

The brawler took a moment to look into her partner's amber eyes, probably to find a sort of assurance that the catgirl wouldn't fall back to her old habits and run away again being the thought that crossed through Blake's mind, before letting out a small sigh.

"If you say so," Yang conceded before adding, "They might not have been in that Aura thing you did, but I _was_. And _I_ could feel the changes you've made since we all met. _I_ could feel you learning to trust others to face things, and that's a_ heckuva_ lot more I can say than about the girl who'd practically self-destructed before the school dance..."

"But you still felt all the other things, too."

Yang made to open her mouth but found no words coming out, her gaze finally dropping to the floor in defeat before giving her partner's shoulder a light squeeze, "Ain't nuthin that can't be changed, Kit-Kat. Stick around long enough here and you'll find out. In the meantime, I'm gonna get me a much needed shower..."

Silently crossing in front of her, Yang reached out to open the door, the brawler about to step in when she was halted by the ravenette's hand on her arm.

"Hey... just, save me some of the hot water this time. I'd rather not have to come back to a cold shower after having gotten one already today from Weiss."

Turning back to face the smirking catgirl, Yang's eyes lit up a bit before nodding in confirmation and stepping into the dorm, Blake finding herself alone in the hall as soon as it shut but feeling at least a little better about it now that she'd managed to make her partner feel better about it too. But glancing at the stairway that led out of the building, Blake suddenly felt a distaste at the idea of being with people even in a place like the library as a wave of her old fondness for solitude overcame her, enough to deter her from even knocking on JNPR's door to get Jaune's take on things as she glanced at it only a few feet away from her. Logically, that only left one direction as the catgirl glanced at an access ladder at the end of the hall.

"Up..."

* * *

"Hmm... _Skill List._"

_**DING!**_

**[Skill List]**

**A Gamer's Mind**

**A Gamer's Body**

**Observe**

**Stealth**

**Sword Mastery**

**Blunt Weapon Mastery**

**Firearm Mastery**

**Kusarigama Mastery**

**Dual Wielding Mastery**

**Aura**

**Vecchian Recovery**

**Detect Bloodlust**

**Energy Bolt**

**Spiraling Energy Bolt**

**Dust Proficiency**

**Sense Danger**

**Power Strike**

**Mana Arrow**

**Spinning Mana Arrow**

**Illusion Barrier**

Taking a look at the same list for the umpteenth time in the past few hours, the catgirl's ears pricked up at the sound of a second presence behind her on the dorm roof.

"I see you've found my hiding place. My little place to get away and think for a while since the beginning of the year."

"Then I suppose we've been partying together too much and our ideas are beginning to coincide due to my ability," Blake sighed out drearily without removing her gaze from the window even when the blonde knight came up beside her to sit next to her on the roof edge.

"Technically not my idea," Jaune continued casually, shrugging as he simply looked on towards the late afternoon landscape since he couldn't see Blake's window, "Me and Pyr used to train up here pretty often. And for the record, it's not your Semblance that's to blame... we just, get the same ideas since we hang out more often. Kinda like how girls' periods tend to line up when they live together long enough."

At that, Blake looked up from her skill window and blinked, screwing her eyes shut as she shook her head, "How do you even-"

"Seven sisters."

Blake scoffed, granting her companion the reasonable excuse. As she opened her eyes, she saw a steamy piece of garlic bread held out in front of her, turning to the blonde holding it out in question as he munched on his own.

"Want one?"

"No thanks."

He shrugged again, Blake returning her sight to the window without being much in the mood to talk, but still gleaning a small measure of amusement as she watched him begin munching on the extra piece he'd brought out of the corner of her eye.

"Keep eating like that and you'll regret it."

"Pfft, ner way," he retorted through a mouth full of garlic bread, causing the ravenette to glance at him with a raised brow.

"Jaune. Everyone knows that bread makes you fat."

The blonde slowly stopped chewing, his eyes widening like a child being told there's no Santa before taking a long pained gulp.

"Wait. Bread makes you _fat!?_"

Blake rolled her eyes, the two teens merely sitting beside each other silently for the next few minutes as she returned her attention to the skill list and selected the newest entry.

**_PING!_**

**[Since _Aura_ passed Level 4, you have unlocked _Illusion Barrier_.]**

'Hm, must've leveled up Aura against Cinder without realizing,' Blake mused as the following window popped up.

**_DING!_**

**[Illusion Barrier (Active) LV1 - EXP: 0.00% / MP: 20]**

**The ability to create an empty trans-dimensional pocket in space using Remnant's natural Aura pool. Only possible for those talented in manipulating Aura to tap into the planetary Aura reserves.  
Time Dilation options unlocked at Level 10.**

**To Activate:_ Verbal command "ID Create"_**  
**To Deactivate:_ Verbal Command "ID Destroy"_**

"So... you really gonna accept Scarlet's offer?"

Blake stopped reading, a feline ear pricking up at the sound of Jaune's voice but no other motion made to acknowledge the question. Blake sighed as the silence set in and became obvious, almost uncomfortable even... she hadn't asked for his company, and even if she wasn't going to push him away, she wasn't exactly going to be warm and fuzzy right now, either.

"I don't know. This isn't just about gaming anymore, it's about manipulating Aura and learning methods to make the most of it. She and Sage seem to know quite a bit about it. So maybe, yes."

Maybe it was her acute Faunus senses, but Blake could hear Jaune's heartbeat increase slightly, his breath quickening by just a fraction as the admission likely had nudged one of his few soft spots when it came to his view of the world.

"That's a dangerous path, Blake. You open yourself to making some decisions you could _really_ regret down the line. If even _I_ can figure that out, I'm sure you can, too."

"Regret? _Regret?_" Blake repeated, some emotion leaking through her own voice as she looked up at the blonde for the first time with a piercing amber gaze, "I already _have_ plenty of regrets in life. And you said it yourself - in a game, you don't fear, freeze, or _regret_ anything you do. In case you haven't noticed, that has quite _literally_ become my mindset over the past few weeks."

"That's _not_ what Gamer's Mind is about!" Jaune nearly shot back, his voice raised but still checked, "You still have a choice, and you don't have to use it to end anyone you don't have to."

"You're right," Blake noted sharply, her eyes softening however as she continued, "And it's already a choice I'd made long ago. The way I see it, my new Semblance isn't just a reflection of who I am... but of who I _was_."

Jaune shook his head as the ravenette looked away from him, her arms held tightly by her sides as each hand gripped the roof ledge just underneath each leg, "Blake, that doesn't even make any sense. You may not be able to change what you _did_, but you can _always_ change a choice you made before, especially if it's a bad one! Talking in absolute like that makes you sound like one of those terrorist guys we've heard of on TV!"

"I _was_ once a part of those 'terrorist guys'!" Blake yelled, turning to face him as she finally snapped after tempering her emotions all afternoon, "What I was, what I am... a _weapon_, honed to cut the deepest for a cause that turned out to be as lost as those whose ideals we fought against! I left those false ideals, I left those oaths of blood, and what am I left with? I'll give you a hint, Jaune... it sure isn't _guilt_..."

Blake turned to look back over the wide expanse of early evening sky, the sun nearly setting over the Beacon cliffs as all Jaune could do was watch the girl next to him in shock, "I ran before. Ran from my problems, and once even tried to run from Beacon. But I'm _sick_ of running. I'm _tired_ of fear. So instead, I _do_ intend on honing myself and doing what I do best... _cut the deepest_."

"Blake, you-"

"_That's_ why my Semblance changed to what it did," Blake interrupted the knight, her voice final even though her gaze couldn't quite rise high enough to meet his, "The running. The fear. All gone... replaced with the ability to destroy those who deserve it with the same efficiency of a trained player."

"No," Jaune finally eked out, genuinely hurt by the words he was hearing from a cherished friend, "No, no, no... Blake. We only met Scarlet and Sage a day ago... don't, _don't_ tell me those guys knew you better than I did!"

"That isn't exactly difficult to do," Blake retorted dryly as she looked down over the edge of the roof, no longer measuring her words in her emotional exhaustion, "What would you have known, anyway? You showed your merits in teaching me about my ability and earned your own spotlight. But we both know that without The Gamer, you and I never would've spoken a word to each other in the first place. In fact, I'm quite certain we would still have yet to trade a single word."

She heard silence for a moment, catching Jaune's knuckles at the edge of her line of sight white against the ledge of the roof before he let go, leaving the stone crumbled underneath them and the metal rebar within warped as he leaned just an inch closer to her.

"That's because we'd be _dead_."

Blake froze at the words, immobile at his uncharacteristically heated words as Jaune stood up and dusted his armor and pants off, "Y'know Blake, it's not about what we _were_. None of what we do here as future Hunters is. It's about what we become to _overcome it_. Like you said, you thought this was all nothing more than a sad game... and look at that, one Dust explosion later, and it became one! It just never crossed my mind that I was nothing more than a tutorial character... I guess I really _am_ as slow as they make me out to be."

Blake turned her head to follow him from her seated position, surprised by the stinging sensation she hadn't felt in her eyes previously. And that's when it hit her. She hadn't run, but she'd still managed to possibly ruin yet another friendship with her anger... and this time, possibly something more. But before she could say anything, she was beat to the punch by Jaune's final words as he held up a finger with one hand before slamming the door shut behind him after his statement with the other.

"_Well played_, Blake! Well played."

Left alone again on the rooftop, the whirl of anger, regret, and sorrow flooding her all at once, the ravenette only turned slowly to look forward as the final rays of sun set over the horizon.

And let out a long, pained cry.

* * *

The sky was neither daytime blue nor nighttime black where the lone woman walked. The light clinking of the bangles on her ankles were more like a warning siren as even the scum in the alleyways she walked through cowered deeper into the shadows. Shadows, of course, dispelled by the ever-present blaze in her eyes.

But making her way through the damp slums under the murky red sky, the woman walked out between two buildings into a masterfully-built courtyard to a massive modern building made nearly entirely of glass, a single insignia hanging dozens of stories in the air over the endless red horizon.

The woman entered, slid a card hidden under the sleeve of her dress through a scanner, and took an elevator to the very top floor before stepping out into an incredibly long walkway lined with the highest-quality mahogany flooring and marble walls. Under a sky of red, the entire scene with the naturally splotched marble wall and grained wood underneath simply looked like a blood-spattered war zone.

"You did well."

The voice came softly across the halls in a way that would've seemed quiet to the woman in the red dress had she not accounted for the dozens of feet of space still separating them.

"It's still a pity, we've lost some valuable assets over the past forty-eight hours."

"Nothing that can't taken care of," the voice replied, palming a small chess piece as the person turned to face Cinder, "After all, here at The Company, we offer _excellent_ life insurance."

"Indeed we do," Cinder echoed, finally having closed the gap and standing only a few feet from the desk before giving her report, "In better news, we've fully analyzed our target. Truly, she is an excellent candidate for the auctions."

"Yes... though now I find the girl might be much more useful than serving as some Mana battery for the highest bidder," the person mused aloud, taking time in speech that only one of the highest standing in any enterprise could take as freely, "We may have to reconsider our approach both in recruiting and in position when the time comes."

"And the other?" Cinder asked, meeting the person's pensive glare with a rare gleam of interest.

"The other," the person drawled contemplatively, "The other is already very strong. This could become a problem if unchecked, since the first contact was cut short without follow-through. We will have to play this very well if we're to secure both assets."

"I take it you've already fabricated a time and place of acquisition?"

"Of course," the figure noted brightly with a wide grin, a small smirk appearing on Cinder's lips as her eyes gleamed in anticipation, "At the Vytal Tournament. I'll ensure the arrangements are set for your entry."

Taking the pause as a sign of dismissal, Cinder merely bowed her head by a fraction before turning to take her leave.

"Oh, and President Fall," the figure called out behind her, the woman turning with slight surprise as the person leaned forward slowly, "Thank you. For your cooperation."

Turning to face back out over the dark world under the red sky, the figure smiled before placing a small red chess piece on the corner of the desk.

"Queen's to you, Ozpin."

* * *

**A/N:** _Did you see that one coming? No? You there, d'you see that coming? And you, reading this whilst sitting on the toilet, did you see that coming?_

_No? Then my job is done here._

_The Knightshade ship has hit an iceberg. Heck, the Iceberg ship has hit an iceberg, but that's beside the point. In all truth though, I gotta give a huge thanks to **Coeur A'A** out there for our little chats about comedy and tragedy, cuz I wouldn't have had a strong enough idea going into the next arcs without them! But there's a bright side to all this... Blake gets to spend some quality time with RWBY, and Jaune gets to spend quality time with JNPR. I knew I was gonna have to do that eventually, might as well add some angst in the mix!_

_**Cinder.** Now **that's** a reveal I'd been waiting a long time for. Think about it... her back tattoo is rather prominent, even funnier since a nearly identical DUST tattoo design shows up in the World of Remnant "Dust" episode. Add that to her "unexplainable" wardrobe change in the Dance Dance Infiltration episode? It's enough to make some **serious** question marks. For me, the final nail in the coffin was how she sizzled two shortswords into existence at the CCT. Thus, **Projection!** Ahh... and Cinder's just getting started, too..._

_As for **CRDL and SSSN**, this does mark the **passing** of secondary characters from this story. For the most part. But in exchange, I'll note that it is to make room for characters which are to be introduced in Volume 3... **starting next chapter!** Have fun guessing which one(s) they might be :)_

_In any case, time for a **crossov-omake!**_

* * *

**Crossov-omake #3:_ Star Wars - The Force Unleashed_**

* * *

"Something's wrong."

Blake nodded, her eyes narrowing at the empty area as Coco leaned out of the side door keeping a hand on the side of the craft and took a glance around the area.

"No prof to welcome us. No thrum of students. Not even a breeze."

"This... is not Raxus Prime..."

Three glares, along with about seventeen others that bunched up behind them to try and see as well, focused on the man whose armor looked strangely similar to Jaune's, with shoulder and forearm shields mended together with straps and his hood draping down into a knee-length cape.

"Who're _you_ supposed to be," Jaune called out, the atmosphere becoming tense as the man outside seemed to focus solely on Blake.

Blake could tell the moment he looked at her... he had, something dark within. Like Adam. Pain, anger... and so much hate. And if this person was here at Beacon, in what easily could be an illusion barrier no less...

"Blake, what are you doing?!" Jaune called out as the ravenette leapt out of the Bullhead at a full sprint towards the man with weapons drawn, "You don't know what he can-"

Jaune immediately went quiet, drawing his weapons as the man held out a hand and caused Blake's entire body to lurch from a distance.

Suddenly finding herself short of breath, Blake dropped her weapons and brought her hands to her neck as she suddenly found herself thrust forward at the man by what felt like a vice-like choking grip.

"You," he began as he brought her face close to his, looking into her angered amber eyes as she realized he had a grasp of telepathy similar to Glynda's, "I can sense... anger, in you. Hate. Suffering... there is darkness in you, youngling. But you were foolish to attack on your own."

Unwilling to let him know he'd gotten a beat on her, Blake thought of the lamest comeback Yang would likely think up at a time like this.

"Really? I _*cough*_ just thought you were packing tuna... How 'bout - _grk_ \- you let me... down... _*gasp*_ and I'll _show_ you who's foolish!"

The girl's words only made the man give a smug smirk, "Maybe another time, youngling. Let the Dark Side grow in you, and one day I'm sure you'll have the chance. But first..."

His scowl deepened just before he tossed the catgirl to the side like a ragdoll, the force of the throw rending her unconscious as she made a heavy impact against a fueling shack on the landing pad and he turned his attention to the students charging him, "I will commandeer that airship! Move aside, or feel the wrath of_ Galen Marek!_"

But infuriated by her partner's surmise, Yang was the first to take a leap at the man with a fully charged aura-punch of anger, "Oh, I'm about to make you feel a _Galen_ places you didn't even know you _had!_ HAAAAAAAAAA-!"

**_-OOOOOOOOOOM_**

The sudden blow-back of force from the brawler's charged blow against the irresistible force of the man's open-palmed push sent the remaining students flying back like dried rice blown across a tabletop, the man genuinely impressed that the red-irised young woman challenging him was still holding strong in mid-punch with her fist advancing towards his open palm. The force between them causing the very air around them to pulse, each pulse increased in frequency as Yang roared in effort against him until Galen finally turned his whole body to shove the girl back, the power of the counter so strong that she flew all the way back against ADA to cause a sizeable dent in the hull.

"Yang, no!"

And nearly overtaking him with incredible speed, the man was nearly cleaved in half by a little girl's giant scythe but dodged it with a Dash backwards that left trails of dark electricity in his wake. Finally taking out what Ruby figured must've been the smallest weapon she'd ever seen, she was surprised to see it expand into what looked like a rapier or saber of light and deflect her beloved Crescent Rose with so much force.

"Your skill with a scythe is _astounding_, young one!" Galen called out with what almost sounded like humor, "I'd take you as an apprentice on those skills alone!"

"Well unfortunately for _you_," Ruby quipped before activating her Semblance, forcing the man back with every slash of her blade, "_YOU_," **_slash_**, "_HURT_," _**slash**_, "_MY_," **_slashslashslash_**, "_SISTER!_"

With a final upward slash of the scythe, Ruby pushed Galen back and was kept from moving forward by Coco in full gun mode.

"I got this. Come to mama!"

**_RATATATATATATATATATATATATAT...!_**

But to the students' surprise, and Ruby's slack-jawed awe, Galen began to criss-cross back towards them, spinning his lightblade with reflexes and speed even the crimsonette couldn't believe before coming up and slicing through Coco's gun repeatedly with a series of slashes.

"Hm. A mini-gun made without Phrik... how thoughtless," Galen noted, both girls staring at him dumbfounded for a moment as he was literally now taking the time to rebuke them instead of killing them or something, "Any respectable weapon smith should keep in mind that their creation, especially one as intricate as that one was, will likely come up against a lightsaber someday. Otherwise, it's a wasted endeavor."

Getting nowhere with the girls, Galen rolled his eyes and Force Pushed them to the side, making his way towards ADA Force Pushing students left and right before Weiss stood in front of him defiantly.

"_Why_ are you trying to kill us!?"

"Kill you?" Galen echoed with a confused expression on his face and looking around at the mostly groaning but still living youths around them before stiffly pointing at the Bullhead, "I just needed the ship! I'd fly it right back in a few minutes after establishing contact with Vader - this clearly isn't a rebel base or Jedi Temple, and I have no business with_ children!_"

"Well you've already initiated hostilities," the Schnee began as Myrtenaster hummed with electricity, "So we won't _let_ you!"

**_zzzzzZZZZzzzZZZzzzRAK!_**

A steady stream of electricity coursing through the rapier at the man, Galen easily intercepted the energy with his saber, making no other motion if only to deduce what sort of sorcery drove this planet's mechanics before he noticed the young man who had spoken to him first approaching his other side.

"She's right. Good guys don't talk about wrath and take over airships, so," the boy paused before his own sword charged up with yellow energy, "..._Vim Fulminis!_"

**_zZZzzZzzzzzzZzZZZzRAK!_**

A twin arc of lightning made its way to target, but to Jaune's surprise, it met a _second_ saber the man had seemingly called out of his cloak with his mind at the last second. And just when Jaune was about sure that Galen had gotten annoyed enough to go on the offensive, the man was decked by a sizeable hunk of metal which turned out to be ADA's entire side door. No sooner had he nodded at his partner in thanks when he saw Pyrrha go up in an invisible choke hold like Blake had, bot Jaune and Weiss shoved back as Galen dashed forward with genuine anger in his face.

"A _Jedi_... take me to your Master-!"

**_PLOOM..._**

"_Head_master, actually."

The recovering students all taking a collective sigh of relief at Ozpin's appearance, the man literally having landed with blinding speed but soft enough that he only had to straighten up from slightly bent knees. Galen looked up from whence the man came before glaring at the man with curiosity.

"It is said only Dark Jedi Maw ever harnessed the ability to fly using The Force. Clearly, you are a true Master... Dark or not, that still makes you a Jedi. I shall do what I must."

To the student's shock, Galen's subsequent Force Dash and slash at the man went countered by a motion of his cane so fast that even Galen could barely notice, the man trying another slash but finding his saber deflected with equally impossible speed. Finally growling in annoyance, Galen tried to Force Push the man only to find that Ozpin didn't even budge.

"And with that, you've given me everything I need to know," the Headmaster began as if about to lecture the surprised younger man, "You've somehow found a way, not to harness your own Aura, but to manipulate the natural energy surrounding all objects as if it were your own. A fascinating ability... though completely ineffective against someone with complete control over his _own_ energy."

"Then a test of our skills in a duel with sabers is in order!"

With a yell, Galen thrust forward at Ozpin, the silver-haired man calmly ducking and dodging the first few slashes with minute motions until Galen's increased speed of offense caused him to open up in a more guarded defense. Speedy clashes were heard as the dual-sabers made multiple impacts against the cane until Ozpin looked down at his scorched weapon with distaste.

"Focused plasma beams which activate upon contact with a solid object," he noted before looking up at his opponent, "Very well, then."

The students all gaped as the man then coalesced his Aura over the cane, turning it into a believable black version of Galen's light grey lightsabers.

_voomVoomVoomvoomvoomVoom_...

The humming of all three weapons could now be heard as the adults traded blows, the students watching and even beginning to cheer as Ozpin calculated and learned Galen's motions that were unfamiliar to his own training. But the Headmaster's disadvantage didn't last long. Finally speeding his attacks faster than the dual-wielder could handle, Ozpin showed perfect form and composure as a saber-wielder, placing a final step and augmented Aura-blast to send Galen flying back to the edge of the landing pad over the Beacon cliff.

Quickly coming to, Galen looked up to find that his sabers had fallen out of his grasp, seeing them each a few feet away and calling them to him with a Force Pull only to find that no effect was being made. Watching Ozpin calmly approaching him as the students watched them from afar with awe, Galen quickly stood and continued trying to summon his weapons but to no avail.

"Your ability is no longer of use to you," Ozpin began informatively, the usually fearless Sith apprentice hesitating only because his situation was only proving the man's words true, "Any ability to push or pull included. As a matter of fact, I'm rather certain that one of our more... _portly_... Professors here would now be able to leap higher than you now that you're without your ability..."

"H-How?" was all Galen could ask as he glared wide-eyed at the dangerously calm man who continued approaching him.

"The Force. It is partly internal, but also external. Divided focus between two points which cannot stand against someone who has learned complete internal control before reaching out to the external world. I have learned the ways of your 'Force'... and have now effectively _nullified_ your ability to use it as long as I'm around."

"That's... that's impossible!" Galen retorted, taking a few shaky steps back towards the edge of the impossibly high cliff as Ozpin yet continued to approach, "No man... Sith _or_ Jedi... can entirely annul another Force-user's abilities!"

"You trespass on my property. Try to hijack my fastest vessel. And threaten the children I've sworn to protect with every fibre of my being. Oh, I've made _no_ mistake in making these claims. Perhaps you should've considered _yours_ the moment you dared engage my students."

"This is impossible!" Galen cried out, the two men only two or three feet apart next to what felt like the edge of the world, "This is madness!"

"_Madness?_" Ozpin echoed sharply, a gust of wind disguising the large black glyph Galen didn't see forming several feet behind him below the cliff, "**THIS! IS! REMNANT!**"

Every student visibly flinched, Cardin and his team even yelping girlishly in fear, as Ozpin proceeded to literally kick Galen off the cliff.

Without any ability to rescue himself, the young man's certainty that he was about to fall several seconds to his death was cut surprisingly short as he suddenly landed in what looked like a very familiar shipyard. Standing up and looking down at himself, Galen Marek would've been sure he'd been momentarily exposed to some sort of nerve agent or sleeping gas had it not been for his discovery that his sabers were no where to be found and a few red rose petals falling out from under his cloak.

Growling in anger as he reminisced on his utter defeat, the Force-User then focused his anger at the strange, strange irony of events to complete the mission and bring down that giant Star Destroyer over Raxus Prime to save just about everybody.

* * *

**A/N #2:** _What? Starkiller trying to call on his name or Juno's name to bring down that Destroyer? Pfft, **nope**. He imagined getting whooped by Ozpin. That being said, Sparta!Oz...? had to be done._

_And in a semi-final note, it has been done. **1k** of you beautiful sirs and madams have deemed this little story kudo-worthy! It was especially nifty considering that **TGG passed 1k follows and 100k views on the same day**. 10/20/2015 will remain a special day in my year of writing, indeed :D Thanks so much guys, and may we have many a chapter and a reader more!_

_Ah, and from the winner of the guess-the-crossov-omake bit, **NocturnalWarrior**, we have a message:_

_**"Shout out to Yang's fight on Death Battle against Tifa, Gaming's most boobatious - I mean bodacious Brawler! Although that ending was rather out of character."**_

_I watched it. And I agree._

_So on that note, stay tuned for next chapter! RWBY goes on some team hunting, burnt bridges are rebuilt, burnt, built again, burnt again... I think... meh, I haven't thought it out that far yet. In short, we gonna have some serious** girl power coming up!** And a very likely introduction to a recently revealed **Volume 3 character!** So until then, take care..._

**_And Happy Reading!_**


	16. Dungeons and Sun Dragons

_**Dungeons and Sun Dragons**_

* * *

"Left hand!"

_CRASH!_

_**GRRROOOOAAAAR!**_

"Not _that_ left, your _other_ left!"

_POW POW POW... CRASH!_

**_AAAAAARRRGH!_**

"That was its_ leg!_"

"I'm sorry, how 'bout _YOU_ give me a hand!"

Blake rolled her eyes with a silent grunt, readying Gambol Shroud in kusarigama form as her frazzled partner dodged a gigantic hammer strike from the second ugliest Grimm she'd ever seen, "Catch!"

Firing Gambol at Yang, Blake tugged back with a small yell to yank the girl out of the way of a wide swipe of the iron spike the beast held in its other hand, the black monster roaring in anger as it missed its mark and tried to track the trajectory of its blonde target through the air.

"You've got its aggro; you'll only have a small window so make it count!" Blake called out as she continued the full arc around herself with the brawler at the other end of her weapon, both girls yelling at the same time as Blake timed the release and Yang flew to target.

"_Ember-_aer Jet, comin' at ya! _HIYAH!_"

_CACACRASH!_

The Grimm roared like ten thousand men as the brawler's gauntlet made full contact with the Dust-like crystal on its left hand, shattering the jewel and causing a chain reaction that melted its whole arm off. Getting in position, Blake raced to the beast's side while giving it plenty of space between them as her hands began glowing blue.

"_Spinning Mana Arrow! Engage Auto-Fire!_"

**_sssrak!  
sssrak!  
sssrak!  
sssrak!  
sssrak!  
sssrak!  
sssrak!  
sssrak!  
sssrak!  
sssrak!  
sssrak!  
..._**

The beast roared as every axis of energy mercilessly tore into the gaping hole created by Yang's attack in its vulnerable side, every shot tearing deeper and deeper until with a final gurgling roar, the beast slumped down on both knees and fell forward onto the wide grassy plains in death.

_**DING!**_

**[_Dark Cyclops_ defeated!]**

**675000 EXP obtained!**

_**PING!**_

**[_Spinning Mana Arrow_'s level has gone up by 1.]**

"Jeez, why dontcha just start by hitting it with _that_ next time?" Yang asked the panting catgirl with mild annoyance as she casually took out a comb to appease her irritated and out-of-place locks.

Blake glanced at her with a raised brow as the brawler then glanced at an identical victory window in front of her before receiving a level up confirmation with a smug smirk, "First, because its fur has a mana-resistant oil that nullifies my attacks. It takes blunt force to its weak spot to open up a hole I can exploit. Second, you need the EXP."

"Well, I ain't complaining about that," the blonde bomber admitted with a shrug before deadpanning at her status window, "I still don't get why my INT is so low, though..."

"I _wonder_," Blake muttered under her breath at the girl before reaching out to her own options menu and disabling the split screen, "Let's see here..."

* * *

**Name: Yang Xiao-Long  
****Class: The Berserker  
****Level: Lv21 _(Nxt lvl: 04.9%)_  
Rank: C_ (Att: C | Def: C | Sem: A)  
_**Race: Human  
****Title:_ Blonde Rage Monster  
_****Attributes: Outgoing, Warm, Pun-tastic****

**...**

**HP: 1425/1425  
****MP: 1200/1200**

**...**

**STR: - 61 +**

**VIT: - 33 +**

**DEX: - 25 +**

**INT: - 7 +**

**WIS: - 5 +**

**LUK: - 19 +**

**...**

**Point: 15  
****Money: 25 Lien**

* * *

As Blake looked over Yang's stats and held back a small smirk at her rather unremarkable INT and WIS stats, she still had to admit that Yang had made excellent progress since training in Blake's illusion barriers, having leveled up three times already in the past few days.

As a matter of fact, Blake's_ Illusion Barrier_ skill itself had leveled up quite a bit in the past few days, her constant use of _ID Create_ and_ ID Destroy_ at every waking moment as she walked around the school or lounged in her room causing the skill to level up, as well as _Aura_. Once _Aura_ hit level 5,_ Illusion Barrier_ gained the added function of creating what the catgirl realized were _Dungeons_, pockets of inter-dimensional space filled with random Grimm that she could train on at will. And so, the _Dungeon_-grinding with Yang had officially begun.

Of course, Ruby had been eager to join as well but forced to restrain herself upon Weiss' negative reply, choosing to stay back with her for the sake of diplomacy and the continued functioning of the team even in its stressed state.

"Whoa! You guys beat another one already!? It took me and Weiss like a half hour to take our first one down!"

Ruby's sudden exclamation as she and the heiress herself approached the pair called her out of her musing, Yang being the first to walk over and begin telling them the story with a pop of her collar. Blake chuckled at the scene before making eye contact with Weiss who had been previously looking over the torn and battered disintegrating Grimm before speaking up to the ravenette.

"I saw the last bit of your battle against it. It was... dramatic."

A slight pause stretched between the two before both Blake and Weiss cracked similar smirks at each other and the heiress turned to continue listening to Yang's story which Ruby was already gobbling up. Well, Weiss wasn't _as_ cold as she had once been, the catgirl admitted about the snowy-haired student who'd recently decided to give Illusion Barrier training a shot. It was nice to know she wasn't the only one on the team with a tendency to delay emotional healing, but at least there was progress.

But then again, that was until _after_ team RWBY witnessed Yang's beastly progress using Blake's training a day or so before, in which the brawler practically mutilated an entire team of second-year students with only two punches. One to knock the over-eager leader clear across the sparring area, and the other to land a wince-inducing triple-KO on the remaining three students at once.

Of course, and maybe understandingly, Blake reluctantly admitted as well, Weiss still adamantly refused to join any semblance of a party with the catgirl directly.

Turning back to glance at the half-dissolved Cyclops a few yards away from them, Blake's mind went back to the skill itself. Sure, for the first couple days, it was Dungeon-grinding against Beowolves, and then Ursae. But once the _Dungeon_ subskill began to level up... things got interesting. Known Grimm were replaced with lizard-like komodo dragon variants, and then kobolds, and now... _these_ things... The catgirl couldn't help wondering if Ozpin had gone through a similar situation as he figured out his semblance in younger years; if he was a summoner, could that mean that with enough skill, she could one day summon these unique constructs of her Semblance into the real world as well? Maybe Jaune could be able to provide insight as to-

"Blake? Blaaaaake..."

The young woman's amber eyes blinked several times as she came back into the present, idly moving away Yang's arm that was quickly waving in front of her face to watch her team giving her a small array of inquisitive expressions.

"You okay, Blake?" Ruby noted first, "You look like you're frowning..."

Blake sighed as she subconsciously shook the thought of the blonde knight and the blow-up between them from nearly a week ago. This... likely wasn't the time to go sulk in that corner of her mind right now.

"No, I'm... I'm fine. Just, thinking. That's all."

"Yeah, that's pretty much your resting face these days. But you know what dad always said about what it stands for whenever someone says they're _fine_," Yang noted aloud with a knowing glance at her sister, gesturing quotation marks around the last word before both girls began chanting in unison.

"_Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional_..."

Both Blake and Weiss let out scoffs at their partners' behavior, the ravenette facepalming while the heiress pinched her nose in an effort to relax. But Blake wasn't about to deny that it was probably best to just shrug that one off... an action which suddenly became much easier as a foreign presence was suddenly felt in the barrier and Blake's gaze shot up to look around the wide grassy plains riddled with scorchmarks and fizzing remains of downed cyclopses.

"Someone's here."

Receiving three confused stares from her teammates before they too readied their weapons for possible combat, two of their gazes sprung wide open as the fifth presence made itself known.

"Well if it ain't nice to hear my lil' girls are still thinkin' about their old man!"

Their surprise quickly being replaced with beaming grins, Yang and Ruby threw out their arms as the crimsonette literally dropped her weapon to attack-hug the older blonde, "_Daaaaaad!_"

"Hey, sweet pea!" the man called out happily as he took her in an embrace, yanking his other daughter into an embrace with his other arm as well with a playful smirk, "Hey baby doll, heard from Oz ya made a killin' last sparring match!"

"Sure did! Two of 'em are still in the infirmary!"

"'Atta, girl!"

"Wait, you're their _father?_" Weiss questioned with a raised brow, incredulity creeping into her voice until Yang turned back to face her.

"Well, _duh_," she stated, motioning at their matching color schemes, "Can't you see the resemblance?"

At that, both the man and his daughter flashed the heiress an identical pair of cheesy grins, causing the heiress to blanch and the catgirl's eyes to widen with her reply, "Oh Oum... there's _two_ of them."

"Well look who just went full Grumpy Cat in all of about two seconds."

Yang fistbumped her father at his retort with a smug smirk before Ruby stepped forward to make introductions, "Okay, girls, this is our dad, Taiyang! Dad, this is my team! The girl in black is Blake Belladona-"

"She's as quiet and adorable as a walking kitten calendar," Yang added quickly, further describing each member as Ruby continued in pointing at her partner.

"And that's Weiss Schnee."

"She has her moments, but can sometimes be kind of an _ice_-hole."

"_Hey!_" the heiress called out, Myrtenaster already humming with ice-Dust ready to inflict retaliation before Blake quickly held out both hands.

"_Wait!_" she called out, everyone's attention now on the catgirl as she narrowed her eyes at the man, "We're in an Illusion Barrier. A construct completely invisible to anyone outside it's boundaries... so _how_ did you get in here?"

At that, Taiyang simply patted Yang's shoulder so she would let him out of her side hug, taking a step forward as he motioned to the area around him with a confident smirk, "Sorry darlin', but you talkin' 'bout _this_ Barbie-house plaything here? I saw this construct stickin' out like a sore thumb as soon as I landed in Beacon, walkin' in was as easy as walkin' through the front door you left open!"

"That's impossible," Blake began flatly with a deadpan before the group was interrupted by a very inhuman roar.

"Um... girls? What exactly were you four doin' in here again?"

Ruby merely gulped in apprehension as the midnight-black four-armed source of the roar appeared over the nearest hill, each hand armed with a different massive weapon and its only distinctive mark aside from a sapphire crystal between its collarbones being a leopard-print loin cloth slung around its nether regions.

"Um... fighting Grimm?"

His jaw slightly going slack as he watched the black one-eyed beast that towered over them by several yards taking several more steps towards them, he merely mumbled at the creature, "Well... that's a thing."

Readying her weapons, Blake turned to focus on the evident Mob Boss before focusing her ability on it, "_Observe_."

* * *

**Shrek LV56  
****HP: 87800 (87800) MP: 3500**

**An Ogre-type Neo-Grimm that awakens to avenge its fallen Cyclops brothers.  
****Sports a mace, a sword, an axe, and a hammer using attack patterns that alter as its HP goes down. Hide is resistant to mana-based attacks but limbs are susceptible to acute physical force after a missed strike. Capable of creating earth explosions, razor wind attacks, concussive sound waves, and a disorienting stinky yell.  
Shares similar weaknesses as its fallen brothers.**

* * *

"Alright, everyone!" Blake called out as she looked through the info and pointed at the beast with Gambol, "Stay back and stick to ranged attacks while it reveals its initial attack pattern! Capitalize on wide swings and missed smashes, and wear it down so that it's slow enough for us to hit that crystal over its chest!"

"But that thing's tiny!" Yang yelled back as the beast zeroed in on the group with its gaze, "And it's way too high for us to hit with brute force!"

"Then we shoot it!" Ruby yelled with a grin, the four girls then arming their weapons in their gun or firing modes as Teiyang stepped back to watch and the Grimm brandished its massive weapons with a roar.

The sounds of gun and dust-fire littered the air as the team focused fire on the crystal, only for the beast to block the initial attacks by holding two arms crossed over its chest without any perceptible damage to its HP.

"It's about to counter-attack!" Weiss announced as the beast crouched low and sprung forward to give out a blood-curdling roar.

_**PING!**_

**[Negative Status Effect(s) Active!]**

**VIT Debuff (-_5_)**  
**INT Debuff (-_5_)**  
**DEX Debuff (-_5_)**

Blake groaned as she could finally focus on the notification after her ears stopped ringing, her eyes watery due to the loudness and stench of the roar while she noticed her other teammates staggering to remain standing.

"We can't let it cycle to that same roar again!" the catgirl yelled out as she noticed that it was the first direct debuff she'd ever seen from a boss, "Watch out for its strikes and stay on your toes!"

"You heard 'er!" Ruby cried out as they dodged a downwards swipe of the Grimm's axe followed by a sideways swing of its mace held in its upper arm on the same side, "Ice Flower!"

And slinging out several white glyphs that flew in front of Ruby, Weiss placed each so that the crimsonette could aim and fire her Crescent Rose ammo through each of them to hit both momentarily immobile limbs with ice bullets that created large icicles from the points of impact. Roaring in pain, the Grimm reared up and switched sides, causing the group to duck under a razor wind slash of its sword before the hammer in its upper hand came down swinging.

"Jump!"

Everyone in the group leapt as the hammer made contact with a loud crash, tearing the ground with a shockwave that they all dodged by a hairs-breadth as the heiress called out angrily, "Can somebody _please_ remind me - since _when_ do we have to fight armed Grimm!?"

However, any reply - or pun - was cut short by yet another ear-wrenching roar.

_**PING!**_

**[Negative Status Effect(s) Active!]**

**VIT Debuff (-_5_)**  
**INT Debuff (-_2_)**  
**DEX Debuff (-_5_)**

_**PING!**_

**[LUK has caused _INT Debuff_ fail rate of 60%****!]**

'The first time LUK does _anything_ useful for me,' Blake hedged before catching sight of her seriously affected partner.

"Uhh... guyz," Yang muttered as she began leaning precariously to her side, "I'm feelin kinda... loopy..."

Blake raced over to her and caught her before she fell, realizing that the second roar must've zeroed out her INT and forced some sort of catatonic state on the brawler before the man stepped back into the fray.

"Thanks for keepin' an eye out for her, darlin'," Taiyang began shortly as he worriedly ran a hand through Yang's hair, "But that thing looks a little of of your leagues as it is. You girls gunnin' for the crystal?"

The catgirl merely glanced at the lean blonde with a neutral expression, giving him a single nod in curiosity to see what he was now planning to do. But reaching into his wrist-mounted magazine holster, Taiyang grimly pulled out a magazine with the same distinctive four-arrowed cross pattern Blake had seen on some of Ruby's clips as the crisonette in question held off the boss's next attacks with Weiss.

"Sweet pea," the man called out as Ruby fired a few shots in tandem with Weiss glyphs, causing the beast to freeze in pain for a moment and the two girls to glance back at him with surprise, "Might wanna step back for this."

Leaping back in tandem with a string of somersaults, Ruby and Weiss cleared out. Sensing the oncoming danger, the beast zeroed in on Taiyang and began rushing forward with an escalating growl at the unfazed man. The three girls watching the stationary Hunter with growing concern, Blake was the first one to observe the single golden pistol that slipped out the man's rear holster and fell into his hand which he held back. Pulling the gun up and loading it in a single motion, he began glowing in a lilac haze of Aura just before calling out a single line.

"_Peilear Bulg!_"

**_POW_**

Three jaws went to the floor as they watched the bullet stretch out with lilac energy into a ray of light that somehow dodged every one of the beast's four swings to block it at impossible angles before it made the tell-tale crashing impact against the crystal. Seizing up as if having a heart attack, the entire Grimm stumbled to its knees in front of the man with a look on its face that could almost be construed as surprise before it slowly began to fall forward.

"Dad, move! It'll fall on you!" Ruby called out, to which the man only turned to give her a wide grin that even outshone that of his eldest daughter's...

Right before the beast fell on him.

Ruby held both hands to her mouth, letting out the briefest of whimpers before a second gunshot rang out from the Grimm's hide that literally blew up the creature in a giant plume of black mist that settled over the area. Blake and Weiss merely traded incredulous stares as the mist cleared to reveal the shining gun-totter with a residual lilac glow, now wielding two pistols as he approached the group with a confident smirk.

"Now _that's_ how you off a head honcho right there..."

Blake then went slack-jawed as she watched the man reach out with an arm and fire another bullet upwards from the golden pistol to shatter the entire illusion barrier around them, revealing the five fighters to be safely in RWBY's dorm.

Weiss merely looked around the establishment, the grassy plains replaced with familiar books and bunks before glancing at the ravenette, "You're kidding, right?"

Blake shrugged, glancing at the man who had unwittingly just placed Yang in Blake's lower bunk before he elaborated, "Like I said. If I can see it, I can enter it... and I can break it. Common knowledge about illusion barriers at this point, darlin'."

"I'm not sure how any of that counts as _common_," Blake noted flatly, causing the man to cock a brow in realization.

"Interestin'. A natural ability user without much know-how on illusion barriers," Taiyang noted with a stroke of the stubble on his chin before stepping to the center of the room, the three girls taking seats on chairs or the free bunk as he explained, "Long story short, darlin', the more you use illusion barriers, the stronger they get. If you're a strong user, you can see the edges of weaker barriers like wavy air on a hot day. Or in your case, sumthin' more obvious like ripples on water. If you can see it, you can break it or make your own, or both. That'd technically trap the weaker user inside... along with civilians that happen to be around when it's made."

"But that's Blake's Semblance," Ruby observed with a pensive pout before zipping up to her bunk and swinging her legs off the edge, "How's anyone else able to know how it works better than her?"

"Cuz mana-based abilities ain't a Semblance, sweet pea!" he added before playfully knocking her boot to the side with a flick of his wrist, "Dust does to our Aura like what it does to weapons..."

The girls paused in thought for a moment before Blake ventured a guess, her Schnee-made rounds in mind, "Giving it a major overhaul?"

"Right!" Taiyang exclaimed with a point at the ravenette before elaborating, "Dust's a propellant, like we all know, but only until _recent_ years did anyone pick up on the kind of effect it has on our natural energy, too!"

"So's that why you left Patch for a while and mailed us Zwei in the meantime?" Ruby asked innocently with her head cocked to the side, Blake unwittingly shuddering at the memory of the infernal creature as the man continued.

"Right again. Our ol' team back in the day, Team STRQ, we were known all over for our skill with Dust... Lil over five years ago, we were called into an initiative to test a few things they were startin ta figure bout Dust and Aura that people hadn't poked their pretty lil heads into since the War days. Heavy stuff."

"That's _impossible_," Weiss noted firmly, arms crossed in defiance at the story, "There's no way a project of that magnitude would've escaped government notice, much less that of a conglomerate like the Schnee Dust Company. If so much as a single vial were to pass through a questionable 'initiative,' my father would certainly have come to know about it."

At that, Taiyang looked up, making a strange mix between a nod and a shake of his head before replying, "You'd be surprised how much push the right kind of big idea can get... not to mention the hands that'd be more than happy to grease some wheels to keep this thing under wraps. Heard you ladies even did a stint at one of the biggest white coat houses on this side of Remnant not too long ago."

Weiss narrowed her eyes at the man, "You're _joking_. Lambent is a research lab for _Mana?_"

"Do I look like I'm laughin?" Taiyang stated lightly, raising both brows as he pointed at himself before straightening out with a small smirk, "I figured they'd have briefed you ladies on it by now considerin' all the hoo-hah you all wreaked at that place. But heck, that's why Oz had us called over here - looks like they're gonna need all the help they can get bein' that the baddies seem to be gettin some decent know-how on how the good stuff works without us!"

"Wait, so that means Uncle Qrow's coming, too!?" Ruby yelled excitedly from her position, the bed swaying a bit as she was practically hopping in place.

"You got it, sweet pea," he noted with a wide smile before it started fading in realization, "Come to think of it, he should've been here by now... we both left to Beacon at about the same time. But yep, you know he and I go way back in our old team... he wasn't the best of us at fighting with Mana, but he sure has a talent at figuring out what makes things _tick_... heck, that _is_ his Semblance, after all."

"So you're saying you've learned to infuse your Auras with Dust and use the mixture offensively?" Blake now noted with a raised brow, her curiosity piqued by the possibilities their wealth of knowledge on this cutting-edge topic could provide beyond known literature, "And you've been practicing how to do so for _five years?_"

Taiyang gave her a nod before whipping out his weapons from behind him, giving them both a few twirls with flourish before holding the contrasting twin pistols out for them to see, "See here? I've used Nat and Sal since I was half yer ages, my Semblance givin me what I guess some people call uh... what wazzit... reverse... aw yeah, Reverse Causality."

"Oh yeah," Ruby added, finger to her chin as she recalled the general definition, "You used to tell me and Yang about it when we were little... something about switching cause and effect, right?"

"Uh-huh. With Sal and Nat, I could turn something like 'I hit my mark cuz I fired my guns' into 'I fired my guns cuz I hit my mark.' So to put it real simple, darlin', it ain't that I fire my guns and don't miss... I _can't_ miss just for the fact that I _fired my guns_, a sure-kill move that got me into Beacon in the first place! Strongest Semblance in school at the time too, hands down. Didn't keep you mom from beating me to leader position of team STRQ, sweet pea, but that's a story to be retold another day."

He glanced down at his weapons before giving a small shrug, "Obviously, changin' the way the world works takes an insane amount of Aura - I could only use my Semblance three times if I was lucky before practically sucking my Aura dry... but after the Mana... I can now triple that limit without dippin into the yellow as long as I call out that stupid line first. I dunno, sumthin' about Mana and shouting your attacks was two dots they connected a while back..."

Blake nodded in understanding, finally putting two and two together about how his bullets had literally turged mid-flight to hit their mark. With a Semblance like Teiyang's, a bullet that had already hit its mark due to the mere action of being fired was therefore _impossible_ to stop; the Mana coursing through his system would logically guide the bullet around virtually any obstacle to essentially fulfill its own prophecy, so to speak.

But there was still just one thing before she could properly begin to pick his brain...

"Why the names Sal and Nat?"

Taiyang grinned before holding up the golden then wood-finished pistols respectively, "Names're shorthand for Salvation and Damnation... to remind me that no matter what I make of my devilishly handsome self, these things'll always have just one thing in common..."

Ruby practically worded the next phase from memory as her dad finished it, causing the ravenette to raise a brow at its wise but fundamentally morbid message.

"_You gotta die to get either one._"

The room remained silent as the message sunk in for a moment before Weiss exhaled sharply.

"An overdramatic name to go with such an overpowered Semblance..."

Taiyang simply glared at her to the point that Blake and Ruby almost became worried when the man suddenly burst into laughter, "Ah-Hah! Man you really are a little ray of sunshine aren't ya! I got it, I think I'll call you _Chuckles!_"

As Weiss balked at the idea and Blake covered her mouth to stifle a giggle, Ruby explained with a chortle of her own, "Now you know where Yang gets it from! She's got her puns, and Dad's got his nicknames!"

"You got that right, sweet pea!" Taiyang called out before suddenly snatching his daughter off the bunk and securing the squealing girl under his arm as he gave her a boogie in midair, "So whaddaya say you help out yer old man find his wayward brother-in-law so we can get to steppin!?"

"Qrow?" Blake noted in question, to which the man replied with a nod and wide grin.

"Yep," he finally began before dropping Ruby to the floor, the girl landing with an unceremonious squawk as the man pensively dusted off his hands above her unrepentantly, "Y'know... fer bein' one of the best trackers on Remnant, Qrow's always had literally _the_ worst sense of direction... thought that's not the _only_ reason why we don't usually ever let him get behind the wheel..."

He paused his pensive soliloquy with shrug before lightly noting, "But yeh. Oz'd have an Ursa if we didn't show up together, though. He did ask for mana powerhouse known as STRQ after all..."

"Which included mom at some point, didn't it."

Four glares turned to see the lilac-eyed blonde sitting up in the bunk, simply focused on her parent before repeating with a distant blank gaze, "Didn't it."

At that, even Ruby got up and got real quiet and serious for a second as both girls regarded their shared father while Weiss and Blake traded uncomfortable glances in light of the family moment they were to about to intrude upon by observing.

"Well, baby doll... yeah," Taiyang explained as he crossed his arms over his chest, the raucous and enthusiastic aura so suddenly gone like a flicker of flame in light of the current topic, "I mean, sure, my skill with Mana gave me the best firepower, and Qrow's skill with it gave him the most insight... But Raven..."

Taiyang gave a broken sigh, something akin to a mix between a joy and despair flitting through his features as he thought about her, "Your mom... was somethin else _entirely_. I mean, she was doin stuff with Mana that people couldn't even _believe_ before... well... one day, she was gone..."

Yang's eyes remained blank as she listened, but despite the seeming lack of emotion, they remained riveted on her father for another moment more before she added with a slight wince, "So, even _then_... no one knew what happened to her?"

The man slowly sat beside on the bed and placed his hand on the girl's shoulder, Ruby doing the same and resting her head on Yang's other side as he continued, "Baby doll, were still tryin' to figure it out now as hard as we were five years ago... I am, _so_ sorry, we didn't tell you before. I had no idea how to explain what was goin on then... But now, I think it'll be a whole lot easier. And I get a feeling that figuring this whole mess out just might get us closer to an answer. I can _feel_ it."

The silence silence went on for another second or som before a watery-eyed Yang finally nodded and hugged her dad as Ruby leaned over and did the same, Blake and Weiss able to do little else but slouch back against their desk and bed respectively with tugged heartstrings at the scene before them.

"I feel it, too," Yang finally stated with a growing smile before wiping her eye and standing up with a grin that now slowly returned to full strength, "_So_, whaddaya say we go and find old man Qrow before Goodwitch finds him roaming the halls _first?_"

"That's the last thing we'd want today for _sure_," Taiyang chuckled as well, seemingly shaking himself out of his funk with the short bust of mirth before standing and suddenly going straight-faced at something he noticed on the floor, "Until _after_ whichever one of you left that thing lying around puts it away first... c'mon now, that's just _indecent_..."

As they all noticed the very out of place leap odd-print underwear splayed across the floor, four gazes slowly turned to the increasingly miffed ravenette due to the actions.

"Now that's _profiling_," she hedged lowly, her glare gaining intensity as their accusatory glances remained until she exclaimed louder, "They're _not_ mine!"

"But uh... Blake," Yang began in her own attempt at calm reasoning, "Neither of us have a reason to get cat-print lingerie..."

"It's not even-!" Blake Began, now sporting a light blush as she stomped over to bend down and pick up the item, "You people are incorrigible. _Observe_."

**[_Ogre Leopardskin Panties - Grade: Legendary_]**

**A special pair of panties crafted by mysterious means to be worn by an Ogre-type Grimm for an entire lifetime, which can be thousands of years. It ignores damage beyond a certain threshold and is therefore nearly indestructible. It cannot be worn as anything else other than underwear.**

**_Special Traits:_ Strong. Flexible.**

**_Additional Information: _Shrek used to wear this.**

"Sooo...?" Ruby trailed off as she saw Blake's flat expression at the window.

"Turns out... it's a little present left by our Grimm friend, _Shrek_. Grants its wearer enhanced durability in combat."

"Hmm, an ability to not only summon strange species of Grimm in an illusion barrier, but to have ethereal creatures leavin behind _real things_ after death?" Taiyang mused as he now stepped forward to the cat girl, "Now that's two things I've seen today that I ain't _never_ seen a Mana-user do in the past five years... even Raven..."

But instead of becoming crestfallen at the mention of the late Huntress' name, the man surprisingly sprouted an impish smirk as his focus remained on the item, "May I?"

"Uhm... be my guest."

Blake handed Taiyang the underwear, the man lifting it up and shamelessly scanning every fold before noting, "Well... it does seem to be fashioned after a _man's_ fit..."

A light shudder coursing through her frame as she began realizing the man's intentions, Blake did her best to resist the urge to facepalm as she tried waving it off as indifferently as she could, "You... did likely get the last attack bonus, so I suppose the boss drop is rightfully yours as well."

And with a fist-pump much like his daughter's, the older blonde quickly stashed the new item into one of his ammo pouches and pointed towards the door dramatically, "Onward, then! We oughta find Qrow before anyone else does, last thing we need is some poor bystanders gettin harassed by one of his famous drunken rants!"

* * *

"Ren? ...Reeeeeen?"

"Yes, Nora?"

The teen simply munched on another piece of pancake as his childhood friend paused her stroll through the auditorium Pancake buffet line, vaguely acknowledging the unusual silence that followed as he turned the page to his family codex on the nature of planetary Aura before she continued.

"Um... maybe it's kinda slipping my memory at the moment, but uh, did we ever have a Dust-jet sticking about thirty feet into the auditorium before today?"

"Nope. Crashed in about thirty minutes ago."

Ren continued munching on a new slice of pancake while Jaune and Pyrrha sat across from him, the partners nodding in agreement before they all turned at the sound of the door finally swinging open after all that time.

"_Eeeeeyyy_," a voice came out along with what looked like a _very_ dizzy man, or at least a man who seemed dizzy but wasn't judging by the small metal flask at the end of his hand that he was using in an attempt to wave Nora's attention to him, "Eyy, yew... wha continent ammI on?"

"Umm, Vytal?" she noted as if it were the most normal conversation in the world, question her own answer before nodding her head at the man with more conviction, "Yep, definitely Vytal!"

The man simply drew back in uncoordinated shock, gaining the interest of the other three teens at the table before he muttered aloud with evident sarcasm, "_Yipeee_..."

Taking a swig of the flask, he then slowly peeked over the side of his total aircraft, glancing down at a relatively intact piece of floor beside the craft before hopping out with more agility than a man in his state could be credited for... with what looked like a giant broadsword slung across his back.

"_Ey_. Ey yew people. Is this," the man began with his attention set on the rest of JNPR who quickly tried to avert their gazes to no avail as the man tried and failed for a civilized volume change indoors, "...IZZIS BEACON ACADEMER!?"

Seeing him make his way over and knowing that he owed it to his team to act as ambassador for potentially awkward situations, Jaune volunteered the information with a weak smile, "Heh. Yep... landed smack in the middle of it."

However, both Jaune and Pyrrha tensed as the man suddenly narrowed his eyes at the blonde, his reddish irises seemingly widening in recognition before he sloppily pointed at the boy with his flask hand that caused some of the amber liquid to spill out of the top.

"Yew blondes used to be purttier back in mah day."

"Um... that's cuz I'm a dude... so, yeah..."

"_PFFT_, not with _that_ hair yur not," the man retorted with what he thought was a perfect comeback before slowly focusing on Ren and pointing at him as well in question, "Also a dude?"

"...Also a dude."

At that, the man seemed genuinely affronted, awkwardly stumbling a step back from the group before lifting a hand to his heart in some strange form of emotional pain, "Wha... What's _become_ of diz place!? In my time, girlz hed _longer_ hair an' boys had _shorter_ hair! I-In _my_ time, there wuz... there wuz a sense of **i'denity!** *_hiccup_* An' don't evun get me _started_ on 'slash'-themed fan fiction..."

The three teens once again traded fairly concerned glances before Jaune spied Nora pulling out Magnihild from behind the pancake topping buffet island as she mouthed at him, '_Should I hit him with the hammer?_'

Jaune glanced at Phrrha knowingly as the man began going off on another tangent, awkwardly dancing and singing something along the lines of, "I'm an emo kid, non-conforming az can be... eheh, You'd be non-conforming too if yew looked just like me... I got paint on my nails an' makeup on my face... I'm almost emo enuff to start shaving my legs..."

Now positive that those might actually be the drunken lyrics to an actual song, Jaune turned back at the hammer maiden.

And gave her an unmistakeable nod.

* * *

**A/N:** _Ahhhhh... **Drunk Uncle.** You know I'll jump on that reference till the cows come home :D With the hashtweets and the instagrammys, this dude will be the epitome of... well... everyone in the world who's hating on the Millenials out there..._

_Anyway, onto more serious matters._

_EDIT: Like how this is the last time I post a chapter at 3am... so many grammar errors..._

_**RWBY conspiracy theories.** Oh you bet I have em, and I will share them! Seriously, after watching the last two episodes, I'm totally getting curious how the dude in the scarf and the girl with the axe just 'happen' to look just like the ones on the Beacon statue. So this week's wacky conspiracy theory is this: the dude in the scarf is actually **Ozpin**, who has been indirectly implied to have 'true mastery' over Aura which can make a Hunter 'more than a man.' Yes... My conspiracy theory is that OZPIN has found the Jedi-like path to immortality through the use of Aura manipulation, control, and meditation, and is in fact Jaune's great-great-grandfather! Why else would he let Jaune in so easily, and why's else would nobody have claimed Jaune yet after **seeing him on worldwide friggin TELEVISION.** The girl with the axe might even be Glynda if her tattered cape were actually once a hood and she lost her axe in a staring contest agains Peter Port..._

_That might actually make a decent omake now that I think of it..._

_But I digress._

_A **month hiatus.** Well I can say that it was in part due to me waiting to gain empirical evidence through new RWBY episodes, but it's also due to an admitted bout against writer's block after having written myself into an emotional rut. Many of you whom I've chatted with via PM (or who have read my SI fic on my profile) know that my ease of writing for Blake has come from - in its grand majority - __my characterizing her after a very close friend of mine. As in, I could guess Blake's reaction to certain things in the show based on my friend's reaction to similar situations in real life - not because she was a terrorist, but she had so many of those flaws that drew me to her and so many of those quirks that kept me there. So yeah, I won't go into detail, but I suppose that the shortest way to put is that I remember my friend whenever I write for Blake, and after the Knightshade blowup last chapter... well, I was emotionally done with writing for a little while. Needless to say, Blake's reaction was based on a real person's actual response to an actual situation. But hey, we all gotta tap into the raw stuff in our own lives every now and then to strive for a good work of art or theater, right?_

_In any case, I needed to release the feels and thus came up with a new side story to update between TGG chapters: **Live, Die, Repeat.** Check it out if you're bored or as stricken with insomnia as I am right now, but also know that the addition of a second story is the cause of the shorter chapters being churned out now. Shorter chapters = easier writing = shorter post times = more story updates! **Yay!**_

_That being said, I'm shooting for no more month-long blocks of radio silence between updates, so wish me luck! Or even better, **Fave, Follow, and Review** if you like what you been reading! As always you can PM me with questions and ideas as well. But until next time, take care..._

_**And Happy Reading!**_


	17. Family Reunion

_**Family Reunion**_

* * *

Pyrrha could be said to be a very cognizant woman when it came to the art of hand to hand combat. After all, there was a reason why she was a four-time champion among the young fighters of Remnant's entire Eastern hemisphere, and it wasn't because of her looks, though they were known to stop men in their tracks as they gawked at her renowned beauty. And it wasn't her outfit, because... well, let's face it, there were _much_ more revealing miniskirt/corset outfits out there. And it wasn't even her combat style itself, the young woman knowledgeable on the basic fighting forms of all four kingdoms and a known master of 6 of the 7 katas of Mistrali Pankration, possessor of such reflexes that she had oft been accused of being a Faunus in the more gregarious tabloids and obscure forms of media.

No... her fate ingrained in the stars above was writ with the aura of her incorruptible powers of observation. Sure, her grueling regimen did its part, but Pyrrha's studies of the martial arts were more to identify weak points in others when they fought against her... as well as their strong ones.

Which was why the moment this four-time Mistrali Champion of the east noted this drunken man's stance, which he'd previously seemed to maintain solely by Oum's grace, suddenly relax in a deceptively wobbly way as soon as Nora swung her hammer down... she knew.

Team JNPR was in for a nasty bout with a drunken master.

"What the-!" Nora shouted in pure surprise as her target was suddenly not there anymore, the hammer creating a massive crack in the auditorium floor, "Where'd he-"

_**RATATATATAT...**_

Her words were cut short by the sudden gunfire from her partner as an unexpectedly grim-faced Ren took several steps toward her, focusing his fire on the man who'd almost had a clear killing slice on her from behind. Trading a concerned glance with her partner as they both realized Ren's gunfire was a subtle ploy to get the man inside their range on combat, Pyrrha and Jaune leapt into action in tandem.

Approximately half a second later, the partners were thrown out of action as Qrow calmly ducked forward to evade Pyrrha's spear strike, drawing his weapon to launch Jaune away with the sheer force of the gun-blade bullet's impact on his shield while simultaneously blasting Pyrrha back with the recoil of his weapon against her own hoisted shield held up behind him.

Leaping back with a short hop, the man somehow managed to retain enough balance to weave around every following arc of Ren's gunfire that utterly destroyed the lunch tables around him, continuously closing the distance between them until finally being close enough to slash at him with his weapon that had mecha-shifted back into a sword, except... he didn't.

Instead of striking the momentarily-exposed teen, the inebriated fighter merely gave the increasingly confused Ren a goofy grin before suddenly ducking.

...Letting Ren receive the full force of Nora's "surprise" hammer attack that sent him flying into the far wall.

"Renny! Why'd you just stand there?!" Nora cried out to her partner in both surprise and horror at her slight miscalculation, "Did you not hear my sloth signal!?"

"Hehe, I'm pretty sure dat chick's in Lala-Land, now," Qrow noted from behind Nora before cocking his head at her in curiosity, "Yer Semblunz. Electraki-sumthin. Haven't seen dat wun in a while..."

Narrowing her eyes at him with a not-so-cheerful demeanor, Nora forced him to defend with his weapon against her following onslaught of hammer swings, albeit with slight twirls of his broadsword that looked more like a man swatting away a child's plaything out of the air with each swing. Growing increasingly frustrated with her adversary who was still not a twitching heap of tenderized meat on the ground, the orange-haired girl hopped back and reached her hammer up to the auditorium ceiling as a low humming began to be heard around the room.

However, Qrow merely smirked as he saw the lights in the cafeteria begin glowing brighter, waiting until just the right moment once the difference in charge was enough for massive bolts of electricity to course from the lighting to the girl's weapon to put his counter-attack into action.

Reaching behind himself to the table JNPR had been sitting before and chucking the glass of water Jaune was using at Magnihild just as the electricity made contact with the metal, the resulting conductive flux caused an unexpected power surge that ignited the grenades within the weapon and sent Nora into the far wall on top of her partner as well. Beaming at his work, the wobbly fighter sighed in disdain before turning to face the partners he already seemed to know were coming, not even bothering to use his weapon anymore as he nimbly deflected Crocea Mors and Milo with naught but his open palms in wide, sweeping motions. Hopping up and back onto a table, the man wobbled a bit in their momentary standoff before the balance of the table began tilting it up to separate him from the students, the man then leaping off to flip the table into the air.

Sensing an opportunity to capitalize on her opponent's misstep, Pyrrha leapt into the air, ready to slam the table downward onto the fighter... until unexpectedly being smashed into the wall by the wooden frame from the smug master's reverse spinning kick.

"I'm tellin u kids," he mumbled again with a smirk and evident amusement in his voice, "Yer all too predictuhble these days..."

"Oh yeah?"

The sharp words caused Qrow to turn only to see no one there, looking up just in time to see Jaune coming down from the apex of his Aura-augmented leap, "Predict _this! GRAVIS ICTUS!_"

The man made to block the blow, but with his eyes widening for just a fraction of a second as he saw the black runes covering the knight's blade, he leapt out of the way just in time to avoid the smash that came down with the weight of a freight train at full speed to create a massive crater on the cafeteria floor. Straightening out, Jaune expected to face his adversary with another strike but instead found himself face-up on the floor in the blink of an eye after having his legs swept out from under him.

"Sacerficing sure footing for a killin stroke?" Qrow noted glibly as he appeared over the knight's field of vision, "Still perdictible, but not bad... iff u got the weapon for the job..."

At that, Qrow unsheathed his weapon, cracking a malicious smirk as he clicked a small button on the handle that caused his sword to start expanding with steampunk-like mecha-shifting.

"Now... lemme show you what a _real_ weapon looks like..."

"Predictable? Seriously? Sorry, ya walkin' brewery, but that ain't fair... considerin' the fact that _everything's_ predictable to ya..."

Qrow blinked at the familiar voice before clicking the button on his weapon to cancel its transformation, turning away from the hapless knight to glare at the man entering the battered cafeteria.

"Sez _you_... the one wit the OP Semblance! Oneshot dis! Oneshot dat!_ Bah!_"

"UNNNCLE QROOOOOW!"

Jaune could barely lift his head enough to see a flash of red attack-hugging the man, Qrow standing up to the speed of the crimsonette but failing to do so against the mighty glomp of her older sister. Now a heap of color and giggles, the three fighters wrestled around on the floor for a moment more before Jaune found a hand enter his field of vision.

"You alright there, bub? Qrow didn't thrash ya too bad, did he?" Jaune reached up for the older blonde's hand, Taiyang chuckling as he effortlessly pulled Jaune up to a standing position, "Heh, at least he didn't go full rant on ya."

"Nah," Jaune grunted with a wince of pain as he cracked his back with a stretch, "We got that, too..."

"We?" Weiss questioned as she entered the room with a silent Blake, the catgirl immediately bypassing the knight and heading toward a conspicuous pile of broken table nearby.

"We," Blake noted flatly as she then removed the wood to reveal Pyrrha just starting to stir.

"Really Qrow, ya had to go beatin' on some kids like that? Ya know Goodwitch'll chew you out fer this crater right here..."

Qrow brushed himself off before giving Ruby's hair one more good tussling, shrugging after finally processing the man's words, "Burly lasted a minute, Tai. Not my fault they kept linin up like that... b'sides, the hole's _that_ kid's fault."

Five stares slowly made their way towards the knight, the group of people standing in a sizable blast radius that had sent cracks through the concrete flooring that reached all four walls. Jaune chuckled weakly at the attention, though it died down as his line of sight met Blake's for the briefest moment and he decided to shift his attention elsewhere.

This just wasn't the time to deal with... all of that.

"Finger pointing aside, I take it you guys are Hunters," Jaune noted as his sights zeroed in on Taiyang's weapons, "Pistols, huh? What else do they turn into?"

At that, the man balked in a rather peculiar way, causing Jaune to doubt whether an actual adult had yet to step into the room in the first place.

"T-Turn into!? Son, I tell ya, you kids are really something these days... in my day, a gun was just a _gun_; a blade, just a _blade!_ You wanna shake things up? Ya sprinkle some Dust on it, alright!? Ah, how I miss the simple days..."

Weiss scoffed with vague amusement at the man's show of righteous indignation, crossing her arms with a small smirk as she noted, "This coming from a man whose own _daughters_' weapons also transform... into guns, no less!"

Instead of getting the least bit angrier, Taiyang beamed with pride as he grabbed Ruby and Yang at either side and hugged them close.

"Raised 'em _right_."

The three cheesy grins from the family immediately caused the heiress to roll her eyes with a groan until-

"Who _are_ you people?"

Everyone turned to see Ren hobbling over, hunched over a bit and nursing an aching back as Nora half-walked/half-stumbled her way over to them as well. Paying some mind to the evidently irritated tone of the stoic's voice, Jaune and a now-recovered Pyrrha made their way towards the group, a few accusatory stares at Qrow upon the reveal of team JNPR's state until Jaune spoke up flatly, "Seriously. Who are you guys?"

"Oh, that's right!" Ruby declared, already brimming with excitement at the prospect of introductions, "That guy right there is my uncle Qrow! You met him..."

Her voice trailed off a bit as four stares caused her to falter just a bit before turning to the second newcomer, "Heheh... riiight. And, this is my dad, Taiyang! Turns out, Headmaster called them over after what happened in Lambent to help investigate!"

"Qrow," Jaune repeated simply, drawing everyone's attention once more with his unusually solemn tone as the knight continued glaring at the man in question, "Ruby's dad said your Semblance made it easy to predict things. So Lambent... the _Breach_... you saw them coming?"

"Look, kid. That ain't how it wurks," Qrow noted with a failed show of seriousness as he pointed a finger just a few degress off of where Jaune was currently standing, "Not even Ozzie saw Lambent coming, dats why we're here. The Breach, _meeehhhhhhhh_... that's a lil trickier. We were onto it, but then it went off waaaay earlier than our intel suggested..."

"Point is, we're here to make sure it doesn't happen again, alright?" Taiyang noted even as Ruby sheepishly scratched the back of her head with a nervous smile at her uncle's words.

"So what _does_ your Semblance do," Pyrrha asked in more of a statement, Jaune understanding why a champion fighter would be so direct after being defeated so easily. Then again, she was a sparring prodigy, not a trained Huntress with covert experience like that drunkard clearly had, "It seemed to serve you very well against _us_."

"Ah well, dat's another story," Qrow stated with a pop of his collar, "My Semblinz help me figure out the mechanics of stuffs... I see how yew move for a second, and I cin figure out how ya handle yerself - how ya fight, how ya think... and sumtimes, even where you'll be. Sum people are easier to predict than others... like _you_ guyz!"

Pyrrha did little to hide her grimace at the person who'd handed her the first head-on defeat she'd felt in a while as he continued, "But it don't stahp there. Nope. No it don't. See, you have a thingy like I do, and eventually you get to learnin how the world works purty darn good... trust me, you don't wanna. Cuz once you do..."

Qrow paused, not for effect, but to take another swig of his flask in front of everyone before finishing, "All ya wanna do is _fugghedaboudit!_"

To the students' surprise, Qrow then burst out into a fit of laughter, even snorting a bit as Blake raised a brow and finally spoke up, "Was... that an attempt at a joke?"

"He can be that way, alright?" Taiyang defended with a small shrug, for some reason causing Qrow to laugh even harder.

"Wai-wait, I got wun, I got wun," he began, barely holding in another round of chortling as he pointed at his partner, "Whaddaya call a fish with no eyes, eh? Eh? ...a _FSH!_"

Thrown off by the strange sound accompanied by the even stranger face, even Pyrrha couldn't hold back a small snort as Jaune, Ruby, Yang, and Nora all burst out laughing at the joke. Ren's back hurt and Blake was only vaguely amused, so only Weiss was left to scratch her head at the joke.

"I don't get it," she admitted reluctantly to the catgirl now standing beside her.

"A fish without the _letter_ I in the word," Blake explained simply before both girls fell silent for exactly three seconds.

That is, until Weiss snorted, causing the ravenette to roll her eyes with a small smirk. At the very least, Qrow had now officially managed to break the ice.

"Here's another wun. Which directions do you take to get to Tai's house? ...hehe, al-_right_, al-_right_, al-_riiiight!_ Ha _ha!_"

"Okay, drunk uncle," Yang stated with a chuckle as she gingerly removed the flask from Qrow's hand before he could take another swig, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think you might actually be _too_ drunk."

"Very well, I believe _I_ may have an idea as to have Mister Branwen sober up."

Every gaze snapped to the red-faced Deputy who now entered the busted cafeteria, a scowl present on her features as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and Qrow went pale.

"Dam... woman's gonna crush mah nucking futs."

The menacing smirk he received in reply from the woman said it all.

* * *

"Infirmary report says you fell down a flight of stairs."

"Yessir. Sure did."

Ozpin raised a brow at the pair of Hunters before him, one of them heavily bruised and the other seemingly intent on not ending up the same way. At least, that's what the incredibly dangerous aura he was sensing from the woman beside him was revealing about the situation. He decided not to reveal that he'd seen the whole thing from his office, after all.

And he thought it was in disrepair after Qrow had just crashed a jet into the cafeteria...

"I see. I must say, Mister Branwen, I wasn't aware that stairs could be so... pointy."

"Yeah well, you know kids," Qrow defended as he shifted his weight uncomfortably, trying to hide the tears and pieces of rubble in his outfit as he continued, "Little tykes leave stuff lying around all over the place... heh."

"Hmm," Ozpin noted in assent with a sip of coffee.

It wasn't as strong as it usually was, being that Glynda had used the first pot to bring Qrow back to a more civilized level of sobriety. Rather forcefully, he might add.

"I suppose we may never truly know the full extent of the story due to the level of inebriation I found him in," Glynda concluded with a deceptively nonchalant tone at the Headmaster before facing the pair with a dangerous gleam in her spectacles, "Isn't that _right_, boys?"

"_Yes, ma'am!_" both men declared without resistance, Taiyang being the first to continue, "Qrow's actions make him responsible!"

"Right!"

"They make him a liability!"

"Right!"

"They make him an imbecile!"

"Ri-_hey_..."

As Qrow fixed his partner with a not very subtle glare, Ozpin finally stood up with a sigh from his clockwork desk in his clockwork office overseeing the entire school, replacing his mug in hand for his cane as he addressed the Hunters.

"Mister Branwen... Mister Xiao Long... you're both graduated and accredited Hunters of the sixty-first class of Beacon Academy," the silver-haired man stated with his ever-serene manner of expression, "I'm no judge as to how you choose to complement your combat prowess..."

He then leveled a light glare at the more battered of the two, "Or coping mechanisms... But I've called you here today because you both are two of the only remaining Mana-infused Hunters on this side of Remnant who are still viable for duty. I must be certain beyond a... reasonable measure of doubt... that you both can execute your mission, should you choose to accept it."

"I take it we'd have to get a decent fixin' on what that mission is _first_, sir," Taiyang noted, to which Ozpin granted a slight nod of agreement.

"Indeed. I take it you both recall the Lambent facility?"

"_Course_ we do," Qrow retorted with no small measure of disgust in his voice, "That ultra secret-slash-prestigious alter-Academy that Tai, Rose, my sis and me got sent to after offing that stupidly tough legendary-class Nevermore during initiation... wha wazzit again?"

"Ridley," Tai supplied in a prompt aside.

"Right, _Ridley_," Qrow noted with disdain, "Followed by a whole year in that place that turned out to be some hodge-podge of extreme training, insane instructors, and experimental blah that almost got us killed dozens of times thanks to the psycho that ran that place..."

"And Team STRQ's efforts in advancing Mana-based technologies while exposing Professor Schnee's hidden agenda for its power will not soon be forgotten among those who have the resources to keep it running as a state-of-the-art research center today."

"Yeah, that's what we're afraid of," Taiyang huffed as Qrow nodded in agreement.

"Uh huh. Kinda needless to mention that the _Schnees_ remain the highest contributor to this initiative throughout the years..."

"Under new management," Glynda asserted, though with less bite in her correction as was surely warranted due to the stories the four members of team STRQ had once brought back as teens of the mad Professor's harrowing social experiments and demented mind games. Needless to say, only a tenth of the class of students from all four kingdoms to qualify for Lambent's first year of operation survived.

Team STRQ was almost all of it.

"And that always ends nicely," the blonde gun-slinger hedged before turning his attention back to the Headmaster, "Anyway. What of it?"

Ozpin paused for a moment before reaching down and picking up a black dossier he'd kept under the desk, handing it to the pair as he began, "The attack on Lambent, as I'm sure you both heard of, raised more brows than ever before."

Tai barely batted an eyelash as he cast the man a momentary glance over the increasingly-concerning folder, "Even when Summer used her Mana-infused Semblance for the first time to pull a Goliath's tusk out of its... you know..."

"Yes. Even then," Glynda continued, fighting back the urge to roll her eyes at her superior's smirk upon the recollection of the memory, "This is beyond anything we ever believed was possible, even with the properties of Mana."

"Waiiit," Qrow drawled, not a trace of humor present on his face as he looked up from the dossier as well, handing it to his partner after having finished it and pointing at the folder and then the Professors, "I'm having a little bit of trouble... _comprehending_... a few of the words in this thing. Namely, the little ones along the lines of _'Inter-dimensional'_ and_ 'Travel.'_ Mind enlightening us?"

"That's what we were hoping you both could do for us," Ozpin noted, his gaze unwavering as he stood at full height in a nearly subliminal command for full compliance, "After such a duration of radio silence, I believe it's best we resume a joint venture under more open communication. Have you both found anything while navigating the underground networks?"

Even Qrow's glare couldn't stand up to the Headmaster's steady gaze, so he finally relented, "Mostly buzz about the White Fang. Lots of hired hands, though now it seems they use fewer thugs and more mercs for their dirty work. That was before the Breach, though..."

"And after?" Glynda asked, a brow raised in genuine curiosity, to which Qrow merely shook his head.

"_Silence_. Not a peep. Like the entire organization just vanished into thin air. Sure, people are getting mugged and convenience shops get robbed, but that's just blue collar stuff. Anything above stealing gram-gram's Dust-based Energizer batteries is practically unheard of these days!"

"Qrow and me split up and all but travelled the world lookin' fer answers," Tai noted as he continued flipping back and forth between pages without looking up, "Blew most of our Lien, and almost our aliases, too. Trail's practically cold."

"Which is why we've provided new ones, right here in Vale," Ozpin now noted resolutely, pointing at the dossier, "Beginning with Roman Torchwick's old contacts. We may find something going that route."

"Will you be needing new aliases?" Glynda noted with concern, making it evident to those in the room that ultimately, the protective duty she felt towards her students extended even after their graduation, "I'm sure we can organize for-"

"I said _almost_," Taiyang noted with a growing smirk, deciding to ease the tension in the room in a joint decision with Qrow with little more than a shared nod of understanding, "You got any _idea_ how much cred we've hauled into our names with our feats of Mana-enhanced incredibility!?"

"_Miguel!_" Qrow called out, throwing his hand up in flair in front of Ozpin's desk before being joined by Tai with an equal amount of flair.

"And _Tulio!_"

Ozpin could only stare as both grown men in front of him began to strike different poses with every following syllable in perfect sync.

"MIGH-TY AND POWER-FUL _GODS!_"

The next sound heard in the room was the loud smack of Glynda's facepalm, though the Headmaster was the only one who could see it was actually to cover the tiniest hint of a smirk at the antics the notorious disciplinarian no doubt missed.

"Oh dear," Ozpin noted with mock-lamentation as he now faced the two men in their impressions of award-winning bodybuilders only six feet in front of him, "Ten more of you and I fear we may actually have another infamous Stars of Beacon male calendar incident on our hands..."

As Taiyang and Qrow high-fived while Ozpin shook his head with a small smirk, deciding then to pick up his mug and take a much-needed sip of joe once more, Qrow added, "Well I call dibs on July, being that _I'm_ obviously the hottest."

Tai scoffed at the idea, "Sorry bud, _who's_ picture came up under the Most-Likely-To-Bed-Goodwitch category in our unofficial yearbook again?"

"Hah! Who yew callin' _bud_, friend?"

"Who you callin' _friend_, brother?"

"Who you callin' _brother_, in-law!?"

"Boys," Glynda called out, or tried at least, being that her composure had been shaken a bit by the unexpected yearbook category.

"Hey now, it's true and you _know_ it!"

"C'mon, that win was decided by _one_ vote and _you_ know it!"

"Of course _I_ know it, it was by my future _wife!_"

"Who just so happened to be my _sister!_"

"Boys!" Goodwitch cut in again, red in the face still for more than one reason, "You're both acting like juveniles, hardly fit to handle a new mission! Especially one of this caliber!"

"After all these years... _still_ worth it," Qrow mumbled to his partner as they shared a hidden fistbump at the sight of their successfully flustered, admittedly still-sexy ex-teacher.

"Alright, alright," Taiyang noted placatingly, "But point is, we're still tried and tested. If anyone can pick up the torch on this cold lead, it's STRQ!"

Ozpin and Glynda traded an undecipherable glance, resulting in a groan from the Deputy and a smirk from the Sheriff.

"The only thing 'tried and tested' here is our _patience_," a cross-armed Glynda muttered under her breath as she glanced away from the men in the room.

"Well, there is _one_ form of insurance I believe can suit our purposes just fine," Ozpin then noted matter-of-factly, drawing three sets of raised brows from his audience as he reached over and clicked a hidden button on his desk, "We're ready. Send them up."

A few seconds of pregnant silence filled the room until the steady dinging of the elevator shaft caused Glynda's eyes to slowly widen in realization.

"Ozpin... these are no longer test assignments..."

"I know," he noted as the final ding signaled the elevator cab's arrival and got the attention of the other two Hunters, "But this is the one way we ensure that they don't go dark on us again... besides..."

"Daaaad!"

"Uncle Qrowwwww!"

"Baby doll-_guh!_"

"My lil reaper-_uwah!_"

Glynda and Ozpin looked upon the multiple counts of attack-hugging in front of them as the remainder of team RWBY and team JNPR came into the office area, the Headmaster adding, "I believe the premium on this policy can cover itself."

"Now, children," Ozpin began aloud, gathering the attention of the students as he looked down at the Hunters with good-natured amusement, "And... slightly _larger_ children... it is now clearer than ever that we are facing an enemy of superior numbers and ability beyond our initial calculations. This would normally be the time to activate our forces in larger numbers, except for the fact that despite their advantage, our enemy remains adamant in sticking to the shadows."

He paused to look over every face in the room, nodding to himself in a sign of assurance both to himself and to those who were listening, "Since we still know not their plan, much less their final move... then I propose we fight shadows with shadows. Every one of you here have shown a unique affinity for being able to combat these forces, and I believe that you'll each have something of great merit to offer the other as you work together from here on out. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to combine teams RWBY, JNPR, and STRQ's forces and resources to gather intel about and possibly locate the current White Fang stronghold... whether it's in this plane of existence, or not."

Many unsure glances were traded at the strange words until Ozpin continued, "Mister Branwen and Xiao Long will take point as lead Hunters, each leading the group as they see fit - but know that this is no small matter, and the lives of the citizens of Vale may be on the line. Or worse."

"A... A mission?" Ruby croaked, more nerves than anything as the situation began to dawn on her, "Like... an _actual_ mission?"

"Oh yes," Ozpin noted as he walked behind his desk and flipped a switch that opened the elevator doors behind them, "Mark my words. For the eight of you currently attending this academy, successful completion of this mission will not mean a passing grade..."

"..."

"...It will mean early graduation."

Another silence befell the room, Qrow and Taiyang finally turning to grant the brawler and crimsonette wide grins until Ruby and Jaune checked and verified with their teams. The equally bright grins said it all.

Ruby and Jaune traded a short nod before voicing the verdict together, "_We accept_."

"STRQ?" Ozpin noted with a vaguely amused raised brow and sip of coffee at the remaining two Hunters, Tai being the first to speak.

"Yeah, yeah. We're in."

"Good," Glynda noted before taking her place by Ozpin's side, all business as ever, "Then in that case, take the time you need to get your affairs in order and prepare a plan of action. Any and all accommodations necessary for your assignment will be kept off Council books... Beacon will finance your resources directly. Teams RWBY and JNPR, consider all classes and academic assignments deferred until further notice. Any questions? _Excellent_. Dismissed."

"Looks like we got the family all together again!" Tai exclaimed happily as both his daughters hugged him on either side, the taller blonde hauling in Qrow against his will to join the group glomp before shooing them all away, "Alright, ladies, food night! Our treat!"

"We're in a school, dad. The food's free here..."

"Don't matter! We got chits and we're not afraid to use 'em! So you and yours better get ready, we gonna eat _real_ good t'nite!"

Waving over the two teams with wide grins, Taiyang and Qrow watched the eight students flock to the elevator before turning to face the Headmaster and his right hand woman between Ozpin's desk and the massive window.

"Just take care of them. They're ready; all they need is the right guidance," Ozpin noted with an inevitable tone of finality, "That could be you both."

Taiyang gave the Headmaster a silent salute over his shoulder before turning to walk towards the elevator with Qrow. Their moment alone, however, did not go wasted.

"You read the dossier?" Qrow noted in a whisper as he and his partner were out of immediate earshot, both men keeping a light smile plastered on their faces in case any of the celebrating students in the elevator looked in their direction.

"Yeah."

"Saw the readings?"

"They were from what was left of the instruments after that Grimm attack on Lambent," Tai noted quickly in hushed tones, "So there's no guarantee they were accurate enough. But yeah."

"You know what that means."

"Yeah... it looked almost like..."

"I know."

"Ya think...?"

The quick conversation stopped as both men reached the elevator, Qrow wrapping his arm around Taiyang with a triumphant yell for the kids and taking advantage to pull the man close as the elevator doors began to close, "I think we should enjoy the family we got left."

The men traded a brief glance as the stuents continued celebrating around them in their own ways during the elevator's descent, the blonde finally relenting with a small smirk at his daughters.

"Alright, alright, alright..."

"See? Ya _do_ say it just like that!"

Several yelps of surprise and glee rang out in the cramped elevator cab as the gun-slinger then locked his old partner in noogie-filled headlock.

* * *

**A/N:** _Been a long day. I picked up Beta-ing on this site, some of the more recent stories I've worked on being a certain **Distance is Futile** by a certain **Mr-Dr-Prof Sweetness** along with a certain** Shattered Arc** by **ImSoAwesome**. Great stories to check out after reading this one!_

_Also, fun fact. Me and **ISA** go way back, like, his-was-one-of-the-first-reviews-I-ever-received-on-this-site-as-a-writer type of 'way back.' Is that to say me and **ISA** will become a author-beta duo as awesome as **[CoeurA'A/SSCyndaquil]**? Heh, I know **ISA** can go Super Saiyan - seriously, read his stuff, it's really good - but I don't think I can measure up to a British guy who might actually be related to Miss Aran, the space bounty hunter ruler of all things awesome and leotardy! And I'm pretty sure **Coeur** reaches a new Super Saiyan level with every chapter he posts, so..._

_Another fun fact. Taiyang sounds almost ezzactly like **Matthew McConaughey!** Alright, alright, alright! :) Yeah... no one got that reference... *le sigh*_

_Now, I might be setting a record with shortest A/N ever. And chapter of this fic ever. But there's too much about to happen and I didn't wanna make another 15k+ word chapter... with work and life and stuff, I'd not have had it done until next year! So yeah, wish me luck. Or **Fave, Follow, and Review** the chapter that'll likely be the last one I post for **TGG** in 2015! Man time flies! In any case, more to come - Knightshade becoming so pent up there may be others trying to squeeze in, family stuff, dark stuff, fluffy stuff... meh. Depends on my mood. Till then, take care dear reader..._

**_And Happy Reading_!**


	18. That Time of The Year

**_That Time of The Year_**

* * *

_It's the mooost_ _wonder-ful tiiime of the yeeear_

_ With the kids disembowel-ing_

_Grimm, Hunters tell-ing you "We're in the cleeear!" _

_ It's the mooost wonder-ful tiiime of the-_

**_BOOOM!_**

"_NO-RA._"

"...Sorry!"

The coughing students made their way out of the smoking commissary with as much party platter ingredients as they could carry, the two adults behind them waving away the grey - and slightly pink - haze in the air to see the stoic student patiently standing cross-armed next to his partner, evidently taking his time to tactfully put together his next words.

"Nora? What. Happened."

"Well," the suddenly meek hammer maiden began innocently with hands behind her back, absently kicking the dust on the floor about two feet from the massive crater in the wall that was once a weapons locker wall beside the commissary, "I was looking for a place for Magnihild to rest after the fight from earlier and wanted a cozier place for him. So I tried putting him in the handicap spot!"

Jaune looked from the smoking hole and the mangled mess of warped lockers and lesser weapons back to the pair of childhood friends, wondering how many times Ren must've dealt with this kind of thing before to take it in stride like this with his level reply.

"Nora. That isn't a handicap spot."

"...It is, now..."

A long, metered sigh from the jade fighter, his palm actually going up to obscure his face as the students watched... until said fighter's face went bright red from the unexpected contact on its cheek by said fighter's partner's lips.

"Uhm... N-Nora?" he began, his eyes wide as he unconsciously let his hand fall to touch the spot where Nora had just tip-toed up to plant a tender peck, "W-Why did you just-"

But interrupting him with an adorably rosy-cheeked grin of her own, Nora pointed at the blonde man in question, the rest of JNPR, Ruby, and Yang glaring at him inquisitively, "_He_ said that the best way to solve team problems was to 'Kiss and Make Up'! We talked about it on our way over and I thought it was a good idea at the time and it did cuz it kinda felt nice and..."

Taiyang merely replied to the mass of accusatory deadpans against him with a light shrug and a nervous smirk, "Eheh... well, it was meant as a figure of speech, see? On the bright side, it still worked..."

Qrow merely narrowed his eyes at his partner and shook his head before informing the group, "And _this_, kids... is why we haven't been called back to Beacon in almost fifteen years. Man's an Oum-damned walking aphrodisiac to anything wearing a _skirt_..."

"Hey," Jaune noted at his fellow leader, recalling some of his conversations with her in their early days at the Academy, "Weren't your mom and dad on the same team when they went to Beacon?"

The crimsonette in question simply sighed, both brows raised in silent affirmation as she began walking across the group, "Eeeeex-_actly_... let's just join up with Weiss and Blake, I'm sure they've got the room ready by now."

Yang was quick to follow, leading the rest of the group with her own pile of foodstuffs she was carrying before lightly nudging the still-stunned stoic with a smirk as she passed, "Just walk it off, bud."

The stubbly Hunter made to reach at his flask to drown out the lingering incredulity of the moment, but was surprised to find nothing in his vest pocket. Growling at the only possibility of it having been confiscated from him, he was then forced to be sober enough to catch the awkward glances between the doomed pair of partners as they all made the trip to his nieces' dorm.

_meanwhile, elsewhere in Beacon..._

"I was not aware your Semblance could be so... precise."

"Of course. How else do you imagine the school's expense reports are finished on time every quarter despite the fact the forms are forever locked in your office cabinets?"

The Headmaster simply glanced at the ornate steel flask sitting on the desk in front of him as Glynda continued shaking her head from the clockwork room window at the plume of grey-ish pink-ish smoke rising in the distance, an idea crossing his mind as he turned to face her.

"So that's how they end up filed every year."

Rolling her eyes as she internally resigned herself to deal with the apparent destruction of campus property that Ozpin seemed intent to ignore, she began to turn back to face him with her reply, "How _else_ would they- what are you doing."

Looking back at her, pausing for the briefest moment as if a child being caught in the act, Ozpin merely continued uncorking the flask as he took out a coin from his desk cabinet, "Oh Glynda, don't tell me you've never tried an Éireannach Coffee? I assure you, despite STRQ's best efforts, the school will still be here after you've tried a cup."

"If I may, the anti-alcohol policy we've enforced among the students since before the time of the owner of that flask are still _well_ in effect today. The last thing I want is for such beverages to flow freely among them, even in the hands of those who've graduated."

"Despite our shared tenacity is resisting the signs of aging, I feel I should point out that _we_ are no longer students at this institution. Nor are we among them at the moment."

Glynda glared at her superior, the sure smile on his lips convincing her to grant the sorry students who dared damage the commissary, by the looks of it, a brief reprieve as she grabbed a seat and telekinetically pulled her own cup to her hand from a desk across the room, "Very well... what on Remnant _is_ an Éireannach Coffee?"

"Ah, well it's an ancient recipe, which dates back to the times of the Vecchian arts of cuisine and mixology," Ozpin mused aloud as Glynda took her seat, granting himself a small smirk as he watched her eye his empty mug in curiosity when he dropped a coin into it, "You see, the recipe itself is simple - you drop a coin into your chalice of choice... and pour in a dark brew until no longer able to see the coin..."

Having done just so, the Headmaster then took Qrow's flask and began slowly pouring it into the mug, "Then, you pour in a generous amount of whiskey - judging by the smell of this flask and of Qrow's breath - until once more able to _see_ said coin..."

The man then slowly sloshed the concoction in his cup, glancing to Glynda's cup which she then mentally slid over to him with a sigh. Having done the same with hers, and emptied Qrow's flask in the process, he let her pull it back to her open hand.

"Well then, let us try the brand that makes the man," Ozpin drawled before lifting the mug in both hands and bringing it to his lips, smacking them once with the taste after having taken a small sip, "_Hm_. Lightweight. Though the flavor is rather pleasant... but a lightweight."

"The brand or the man?" Glynda noted in question, hesitating just a moment under the Headmaster's pointed glance at her own beverage before clearing her throat. Crossing her legs and straightening out her skirt in an unwitting stall for time in preparation for the consumption of a brew most uncommon, Glynda then reached to pick up her mug and took a sip.

She was surprised to find that instead of the burning sensation of alcohol running down her throat, as had been the case in her first - and admittedly _only_ \- attempt at drinking whiskey in younger days, her palate was met with an unexpectedly smooth, creamy concoction of bold flavors along with sweet pangs of muted liquor.

The Deputy almost hated to think it, but Monty _Oum_ her employer had a great taste in drinks...

Ozpin let out a small chuckle as she took a second, larger sip as if having read her thoughts, the man turning in his seat to face the wide window beside his right-hand woman, "After all, there's nothing wrong with sitting back and enjoying the occasional thrum of music..."

"What musi-?" Glynda began, pausing as she noted the Headmaster turn a dial at the side of his master recliner's armrest to turn up the volume of the song playing over the school's intercom system.

She grunted in distaste, but decided to sit back and enjoy the moment of relative peace. Besides... the song wasn't all that bad...

_There'll be par-ties for hosting_

_Marshmallows for toast-ing_

_And sparring fun under the snowww..._

_There'll be scary Grimm stories_

_And tales of the glories of _

_Brave Huntsmen long, long agooooo..._

* * *

"Hm, finally that time of year already? Feels more like I've been here for almost _three_ years by now..."

Jaune turned back to hear the lyrics coming from the inner areas of the building as he sat on the edge of the dorm roof. Thinking.

He'd seen the effect Nora's action had on Ren, and the somewhat awkward atmosphere that had settled down between them soon after... it was funny at first, but as the teams made it to the dorm and everyone got to cooking on their single stove-top counter accessed beside the side-door to the closet and bathroom areas, Nora seemed to snap out of it first. Still, she seemed different... and that wasn't even counting Ren's strange countenance as well. She was more... touchy-feely... seeming to hang off him a second longer than usual as they cooked while Yang, Blake, Qrow, and Taiyang helped in the kitchenette area down the hall from their dorms. A playful nudge here, a chin on the shoulder there, and Ren's only reaction being a barely-hidden reddening of his own cheeks as he tried to focus harder on his task at hand.

Jaune had stopped listening to Ruby's and Weiss' back and forth about proper Dust-handling procedures in weapons usage beside an amused Pyrrha a few minutes after their friendly argument had started once they'd left Ren and Nora to finish the last batch of batter, the Mistrali trying and failing to squeeze in a helpful fact or two between the passionate partners. Nora and Ren... it seemed to make sense, in its own incredibly weird way, and the fact was that the more he glanced in the direction of his teammates, the more he realized their seemingly opposite reactions actually meant the same thing.

"Did someone order chicken wings to go with their waffles?~"

The conversation beside him pausing at the smell of freshly-cooked meat invading the room, Yang strode in with a large bowl full of breaded chicken wings and thighs cooked to golden brown perfection. Apparently, Taiyang's years as a single dad had taught him a thing or two about cooking as well.

Ruby chuckled, and Weiss visibly snorted, as they then saw the nonplussed sous-chef who'd apparently been in charge of breading the chicken enter the dorm. With her hair done up in a ponytail and pulled back under a short chef cap - Faunus-Friendly(TM), allowing for her ears to poke out the top - and covered in patches of flower on every spot that wasn't covered by her white apron, Blake walked in with the second bowl. Taiyang - who wore the big head chef hat - came in beaming at the food, followed by Qrow who seemed intent on emptying the contents of some aluminum container into his mouth.

"Not _this_ 'ere kids, is how you shell out for a good meal - top of the line ingredients for my own award-winning beer-battered Chicken n' Waffles!"

"I'll tell ya right now... ain't no beer in these batters, Tai. I'll _tell_ ya right now,_ this_ cake is a _lie_," Qrow muttered darkly, wiping the remainder of the can's contents from his mouth with the chef hat he snatched from his partner's head.

Ruby grinned at her dad, glancing at the group she was with to get their attention, "Yeah, probably shoulda explained that when my dad says he's gonna pay for food, it's cuz we'd be the ones cooking it..."

"You guys got the tables ready!" Yang exclaimed happily, nodding in approval at their impromptu eating space - the top bunks tied and otherwise duct-taped to the sides of the room while the bottom ones were moved out of the way to make room for their dressers that were then moved together in the middle of ten high-chairs stolen from who-knows-where, "_Nice!_"

And slowly but surely, the students and Hunters made their way to the makeshift table, covered by a sheet of clean linen that served as the night's grand tablecloth. Weiss had even gone out of her way to make little figures with school napkins placed over every plate - it wasn't Ritz-worthy, but it'd do. In all, Jaune had even put his musings on his teammates behind him through everyone's first helpings of food... until Yang poked Blake on the side to point out some flour that'd gotten dried on her midriff. Getting up with a huff, Blake had gone over to their little sink in their dorm by the small counter and Ren had used the pause in conversation to pick up as many plated he could. Jaune watched idly as Nora followed with the remaining plates, his thoughts returning when Nora affectionately bumped her partner with her hip after placing the plates down.

Ren had yelped in surprise, Blake even pausing a bit in her efforts of getting the last of the flour off of her to watch what'd happened, when everyone realized all was well. Finally turning back to give his childhood friend an easy-going grin, Ren offered his arm to be taken by an impossibly happy Nora as they walked back to the table together. Jaune hadn't even noticed the few giggles at Yang's likely rumor-inducing comment from the table as he continued watching them sit and Nora place her head on Ren's shoulder, the stoic brushing off Yang's remarks with an airy smirk like only he could. Nora simply nuzzled her head into his shoulder with a contented smile.

And that's when it hit him. The feeling brewing in Jaune's gut for the afternoon and finally until the early evening hours laboring through the last vestiges of subconsciousness to be born into his lucid mind...

That feeling... Oh Monty, that feeling was _envy_.

That was certainly a new one for the easy-going blonde; having had seven sisters with a penchant for dolls and pink things and such had left him with little reason to envy something they had that he didn't from a young age. Sure, he was jealous of how well others could fight as he grew in his desire to become a Hunter, but that was different... he'd _train_ to be a Hunter and would have no reason to be jealous! In fact, it could be said that Jaune's original idea of jealousy had _inspired_ him to take the steps he had in life to force his way into Beacon!

But no. _This_ was certainly not _that_. This new feeling had reared its ugly head... and as Jaune caught Blake's eye as she sat at the table at Nora's opposite side, the ravenette whose hair was still done up in that messy ponytail as her amber eyes served as stark contrast to her pale skin still lightly powdered by flour glancing back at him for but a moment, that little green monster roared its first cry. And Jaune was _done_.

And here he was now. On the roof of a freezing cold building at night listening to some Oum-awful jingle wondering why that had happened. Why he'd just got up and left.

Why he'd yelled at Blake that night...

"There you are..."

Turning back for a second time towards the roof access door of the building, he was surprised to see who was there staring back at him.

"Ruby? How'd you-"

"Uh, heh... yeah," she began with a small chuckle, her hands fiddling with each other behind her back as she rocked back and forth on the heels of her boots, "Pyrrha said you might be up here, so I uh... volunteered to see if you were okay..."

Jaune raised a brow at her as she walked over and sat on the ledge beside him, the crimsonette giving him a shrug before continuing with a tight-lipped smirk, "Yeah, she would've come herself... but then my dad and uncle found out she is _the_ Pyrrha Nikos."

"..."

"Turns out, they've had a bet going for the past four years to see who could guess her Semblance. They've been trying to out-bet each other for the past few minutes while everyone watched. She was barely able to point out where we could find you."

"...And you volunteered."

"I did," Ruby replied to the flat question with a wide grin, "Veeery quickly. You seemed like you could use some company when you left."

"I don't," Jaune paused, immediately gravely disappointed with how very _un_convincing his next words sounded to his original point, "_Need_ the company..."

"Uh-huh."

"I'm serious..."

"Oh yeah. It shows."

The small smile never having left her face, Jaune couldn't help but relent, nudging her on the side as they each settled with looking over the campus skyline for the next minute or so.

"Hey Jaune..."

"Yeah?"

"There was... something I wanted to tell you. Kinda been in the ole brain there for a while and thought 'Hey Ruby why not put it out there since you have the chance' and," immediately cutting her alternately-voiced version of her internal conversation, she paused with a slight reddening of her cheeks as Jaune glanced in her direction, "I mean... yeah..."

"Sure... what's up?"

'Please don't be about Blake, please don't be about Blake, please don't be about Blake...'

"I, wanted to say thanks..."

The momentary internal breath of relief was replaced with a much less momentary expression of confusion from the knight. He'd figured that Ruby would've learned about what happened between him and Blake about a week ago... but Blake probably hadn't shared that. Right now, he still wasn't sure whether to be grateful or even madder at the thought. Just the idea of being mad at Blake, though, seemed to make his very bones ache even more.

But that was a can of worms to sort out another time... at least Ruby wasn't trying to pry.

"Thanks?" Jaune echoed, still a little unsure how to interpret the girl's hopeful expression, the young leader beside him nodding contentedly as she lightly swung her boots back and forth over the clearing.

"Yep! Ever since the Breach, you've really stepped up your game. I mean, you've really come through for everyone now!" she continued, her animated way of speaking making his doubt settle into a comfortable smirk, "And I know your team probably tells you this a lot, but I wanted you to know that I'm really happy with how far you've come!"

"Yeah well, they have once or twice," Jaune drawled, leaning back on his arms as he glanced out at the campus and mentally added, _Though I'm sure they might've more had I not spent so much time training with Blake..._

He sighed, shaking the thought and instead glancing back at the content crimsonette beside him, "Seems like forever ago that we were sitting together talking about not failing, huh? You'd already proven yourself in initiation and you gave me that advice one night..."

"And you followed it," Ruby replied with a small smile, little legs still swinging back and forth as she leaned back a bit on her arms as well, "I mean... you literally saved us all by blowing up a cave full of Grimm, remember?"

He chuckled, a small grin on his lips as he shrugged, "Not really... kinda passed out right after _that_, remember? Heh, wonder what'd happen if I tried that one again..."

"Hmm... I wonder..."

Falling again into silence as both leaders simply enjoyed the view a little longer, neither one having ever had the penchant for keeping a conversation going for more than a minute or so, this silence was however a little more agitating to the young girl present... this was her chance, and she was ready to take it!

"Um, Jaune?"

"...Uh-huh?"

Ruby took a moment to figure out her next words, a small pout on her lips as she concentrated in picking out the right ones, "Ever wonder... what might've happened if we hadn't run into each other on our first day here?"

Jaune took a moment to mill the possibilities through his mind, Ruby watching him take a long breath in thought before supplying a response, "I dunno, really... I guess I've always been the type to be happy with events as they came..."

Signs of the hopeful crimsonette deflating before June continued with a smug smirk, "_Buuuut_... that's probably because life would've sucked if we hadn't. I mean, sure I still might've survived initiation... but without you, I probably wouldn't have gotten out of my macho funk when I tried working through my issues on my own. You helped me appreciate what having a team was all about, and you gave a pretty awesome example with how you've handled your own..."

"D'ohhhh... you don't mean _thaaaat_," she retorted with a light blush, trying to wave away the compliment from her interest which had all to easily gone straight through her defenses.

"Seriously, I do," Jaune added, sitting up a bit straighter to nudge Ruby playfully on the side, "If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have trusted in my team enough to become better. And we may not have been able to be there for the Breach to help you guys, either - not to mention everything that happened after _that_... so, in all, I owe you a lot! So, thanks Ruby, you really are the best friend a guy could ask for..."

Ruby grinned in response to his kind words... _yes!_ Phase One - get Jaune alone, complete! Phase Two - find out how he feels, complete! Yang had told her team on several occasions after the cave incident that Jaune was the kind of guy who'd never take the first step... so... it was up to _her_ to execute Phase Three before anyone else did!

"I could say the same about you, Jaune," Ruby stated, just a little more mousily than she would've liked since she was trying not to make eye contact in order to hide any impending blush, "So I was kinda thinking... there was something I wanted to give you? Um, you know, for sticking around with my clumsy self and stuff for all this time..."

Jaune grinned, the meaning of the reddening of Ruby's cheeks easily going over his head as he replied, "Normally I'd say you really don't have to... but I can really use a present right about now, so lay it on me!"

Ruby chuckled at the thought, almost going lightheaded as the exhilaration of what she was about to do gave her a rush in itself before she gathered enough composure to continue, "'Kay then, close your eyes~..."

"Sheesh, Ruby, I thought I was the only one allowed to make goofy grins like that..."

"Just clooose _deeeeeem_..."

"Okay, okay," he retorted with a light chuckle, doing just do as he held his hands out to receive whatever his quirky friend was meaning to give him.

After a moment of an almost hesitant silence, Jaune was somewhat confused when he felt Ruby's bare hands taking his in her own...

And he was much MORE confused when a sudden, yet somehow impossibly slow, presence made itself known on his lips. It took him a split second to realize what was going on, and in the moment that he realized it, it was likely the sheer shock that froze him in place and resigned him to experience the gesture in full. Everything seemed to stop as the warmth from his fellow leader's proximity erupted in a storm of emotions that completely blocked out the chilly breeze around them, an impossibly long second later finding the two students slowly pulling apart.

"Whoaaa..."

"Yeah..."

"Did you... feel that?" Ruby noted cautiously, a slight wince in her eye as she tried to pick the right way to describe the sensation they'd just shared.

Jaune nodded slowly, as if trying to comprehend the swirl of emotions in his mind as well.

"Uh-huh..."

"It felt like..."

"I was kissing..."

"..."

"..."

"MY SISTERRR! _BLARGH!_"  
"MY SISTERRS! _UUUGH!_"

The exclamations being made at the same time, both leaders promptly turned to face away from each other where they sat, Jaune pounding his chest in an attempt to cough out any remnant of the encounter - hurting his hand in the process since he hadn't taken off his chest plate - while Ruby tried to do the same with the resulting sound effect of a terminal influenza patient trying to hawk out the last of the black phlegm in their lungs.

"Ru-byyyyy... _whyyyyyyy_..."

"It felt like a good idea at the time! *_bleh_* I'm sorryyy!"

A little more coughing and spitting sounds later, and both students eventually returned to their original seated positions beside each other, albeit still flushed from the incident.

"For the record, though," Ruby began slowly, still not daring to look up at Jaune's eyes as the idle kicking back and forth over the edge of the ledge slowly resumed, "It... _felt_ okay though, right?"

"I love your way of keeping things from getting _awkward_," Jaune noted with a raised brow from the now heavily-reddened girl, immediately earning a swift but weak punch to the shoulder from her, "_Owww_... but no, it wasn't all bad..."

Of course, Jaune _knew_ \- deep down, from the manly instincts of a thousand generations - **not** to add that the reason it wasn't all bad was that because for a moment... just a moment... he'd imagined that kiss coming from _Blake_.

And in the span of a few seconds through the kiss from a well-intentioned friend, Jaune now knew why seeing his teammates had made him so jealous... his time with Blake was reflected in the moments he saw between Nora and Ren. Could that seriously be where they were headed? Was that why he'd become increasingly agitated the more he saw them together... because he'd just realized what he and Blake might've missed out on?

Sure, for the sake of argument, maybe they'd go there separate ways and be just fine down the line. But that didn't change the fact that they'd have ended things on such a sour note...

But how could he fix things now? He'd snapped at her... how did one even come _back_ from that?

"It's cold."

The voice from his side called Jaune back out of his musing, the knight raising a brow at how Ruby instinctively made to reach to his arm to get comfortable against the chilly breeze but stopping herself as she looked up at him with an apologetic smirk, "Hehe... probably gonna have to wait a while before that becomes totally normal again."

"_Yeah_," Jaune noted with a mock-accusatory glare, putting aside his thoughts in the face of his more present friend as he stood up and offered her his hand, "But it's probably a good idea we went inside... I think I've finally started sorting out what brought me up here in the first place. Besides... I gotta get the taste of strawberry chapstick off me. Preferably with grease and syrup."

Giving him a petulant pout at the scandalous statement, Ruby took his hand to stand with a glare of her own at him, her expression softening to make way for the grin that followed as they made their way to the roof access door, "Ohhh _please!_ That's like the best flavor ever! You can't possibly complain about it!"

"No way! Rasperry's the best one! Hands down!"

"Strawberry!"

"Rasberry!"

Back at the dorm, a few faces turned to see the team leader entering the room, smacking each other with every back-and-forth.

"Strawberry!"

"Rasberry!"

"_Strawberry!_"

"_Rasberry!_ Ow... that one actually kinda hurt..."

Weiss sighed from where she sat before finally speaking up, "Now what are you two dunces doing?"

Ruby made to answer, but turned surprisingly red as she realized just what it was she was about to say. And much to the pair's horror... Nora seemed to finish Ruby's thought for her...

"And why are you shouting out your favorite chapstick flavor, Jaune?"

Pyrrha turned in curiosity at her partner, "Jaune's favorite flavor is raspberry? I'd have figured he went more for the original flavor..."

"How'd you even," Weiss began, stopping herself with a cringe as she decided she didn't want to know how Nora knew that about her leader. She could only imagine the nutshop Beacon would be if the Jaune ever became Nora's Arc...

Even Ren glanced at his childhood friend, who was now all but practically sitting on his lap, in question until she held up a little purple stick from her skirt pouch for all to see with a wide grin, "Cuz I steal from his personal stash all the time! _Duh!_"

At that, the stoic merely shrugged in acknowledgment as if that were a totally normal thing for Nora to do before returning to another forkful of waffle skewered below a strip of chicken. Someone else may have commented on the Renorean dynamic if it weren't for literal lightbulb going off on Yang's head in the form of increasingly glowing Aura.

"Wait..." she began, putting two and two together as she narrowed her eyes at the pair of increasingly nervous leaders, "And _Ruby's_ favorite chapstick is _strawberry_... OH SWEET MONTY."

"They're... they're...?" Qrow began without being able to finish, turning slowly to face the leaders and the now paper-white Jaune for the first time before Taiyang himself stood from his seat with his back to the pair... only to turn to face them with a mighty grin.

It was now Ruby's turn to go paper-white.

"_Wow!_ My lil sweet pea's already got a new boyfriend on her first year in school, huh?" Taiyang began with overflowing mirth as his gaze locked in on Jaune's, "And another team leader at that! Good taste, I'll say!"

Jaune actually cracked a small smile at the compliment, unable to see Ruby trying her darndest to get him to notice her furtively shaking her head at his reaction as the talker blonde approached to place his hands on Jaune's shoulders, "_Well!_ Though I'll say I woulda _preferred_ you to come to ask me _first_, I'll let it slide this one time because you seem to be a _fine, responsible, honorable_ young man!"

The grin never having left Tai's face, it still seemed to dampen Jaune's smile - along with the mood of the rest of the room - as the father concluded with a slight tightening of his grip on the knight's shoulders, "Though I just give you this one, _itty-bitty_ disclaimer..."

"..."

"Whatever you do to _her_... _I do to **you**_."

"..._meep_."

"Great!" Taiyang exclaimed happily, joyously smacking his hands down on Jaune's shoulders with an amount of force that probably might've dislocated them if Jaune hadn't activated his Aura as a prior precaution, "Glad to see we're on the same page! Looks like you'll be in good hands, sweet pea!"

The poor girl simply tried to raise a finger with a reply, "Um... w-we're not-"

"Alright, alright, alright! I say we turn up the good mood with some good tunes!" the man then exclaimed, pointing at his partner with enough flair to bring a semblance of life back into the room, "Make it happen, Elric!"

With a small shrug, Qrow stood up amid the silent glances of confusion among the students at the strange nickname to make his way over to the wall-mounted intercom volume controls in the room. In his brief moment of not knowing where exactly to look once Tai started walking back, Jaune accidentally caught Blake's gaze... which was unexpectedly narrowed at him and Ruby before she quickly decided that Ren and Nora's attempts to feed each other were _much_ more interesting to observe.

"Couldn't have said it better myself!" Yang suddenly exclaimed from between the two leaders, earning a synchronous groan from the two as she brought them in for what could safely be called a full headlock with each arm, "I don't become Auntie Yang until _after_ graduation, _got it?_"

"Grk... _Y'ng_... iz not wh't it l'ks like!"

"Oh don't worry, _Jauney-boy_... we have _plenty_ of time to talk allll about what it looks like. Please, step into my office!"

Immediately off-handedly kicking Ruby into a seat, where she was no longer able to move from due to a black gravity glyph created beneath her by a certain evilly-smirking heiress who was _very_ curious to see how Yang's next action of skidding two seats to the edge of the room to seat herself and Jaune would play out.

But as if no one else in the room cared to notice as they went about their meal, Yang's knuckle-cracking and expectant gaze of explanation kept Jaune from ever noticing the small grimace that had begun growing on Blake's lips as she finished watching Nora feeding Ren the rest of his waffles... as well as the slight huff she gave before standing up and retiring to her bottom bunk to read as the music provided a needed wall of sound to drown out everything else.

_It's the mooost wonderful time of the yeeear_

_There'll be much good times roll-ing_

_And hearts will be glow-ing_

_When loved ones are neeear_

_It's the mooost wonderful tiiime..._

* * *

_Of the yeaaar..._

"Ah... something about blue fire _always_ makes my heart sing, don't you think?"

"..."

"Oh c'mon, it's _way_ better than pink fire! We see that all the time! This is rare! This is alluring! This is... _art!_"

"...!"

"Why would I prefer _orange_ fire? ALL fire is orange."

"...~"

"Wait," Roman paused, the blue infernal lights dancing stories high merely feet away from him and his trusty henchwoman as he took out his cigar and glanced at her, "You're a pyro-_what?_"

It only took a suggestively raised brow and inviting smirk in reply from the petite harbinger of doom to get the message across.

"Oh," he replied pensively, a mischievous smirk growing on his lips as he took another puff of his cigar, "Well in _that_ case, I don't see why we _shouldn't_ add some debauchery to our list of offenses tonight..."

A snort from the umbrella-wielder as she popped her parasol to hide her continued silent laughter from her employer... an act that didn't quite work considering the giant fire in front of them provided ample lighting and the parasol was practically see-through.

Not one to take that kind of joke lightly, Roman scowled at his accomplice, "Then _why_ bring it up in the _first_ place!?"

"..."

"What do you _mean_, 'On one condition'?"

Neo removed her parasol simply to tip toe - well, tip toe and wait for Roman to bend down the rest of the way - to provide her response in his ear. After a few seconds of her little jaw silently moving up and down, Roman's eyes unexpectedly going wider and wider, the criminal merely stood up to glare incredulously at the girl whose eyes were wildly flicking back and forth between about fifty shades of pink he didn't even know were possible.

"NO. _Helllll_ to the no. I'm not doing that-"

"...?"

"Or that."

"...?"

"Or _that_..."

"...?~"

"And _especially_ not that... all for it to be taped and played back on your every _whim!_ Are you _insane_-!? I mean... I _know_ you're insane... but SERIOUSLY."

Neo simply shrugged before beginning to make her way back to the Bullhead parked nearby with an evident sway to her hips in the universal message of 'Your Loss.' Shaking his head off the thought, Roman merely growled even as the giant Schnee logo crashed to the ground with a loud metallic groan somewhere within the fiery wreckage of the Corporate storehouse.

He sighed as he began walking towards the aircraft carrier as well, careful to not trip over the singed pieces of armor and limbs from guards and all manner of otherwise deceased armed law enforcement as several more Bullheads behind theirs began taking off.

But NOPE. Razors were meant only for _faces_. Belts were meant for the _waist_. Whips were meant for the _zoo_...

And Oum _knew_ Roman had a thing against needles...

Finally making his way into the Bullhead side-door, Roman deadpanned at the sight of Neo wearing nothing but her lacey mocha underwear with pink lace frills around its elastic bits standing by the giant crate of Dust they'd just stolen in their own haul. Whether or not the top of the smirking woman's little outfit matched the bottom was anyone's guess, considering it was nowhere to be found.

"Your rack doesn't rise like it normally does when you breathe," Roman noted flatly, his accomplice scoffing and letting her illusion crackle out of existence as he simply continued walking into the cockpit, "And _don't think for a **second**_ that I didn't see the thumbtacks you were hiding between your fingers!"

Neo simply sashayed into the cockpit, dropping a handful of tacks in the ash tray and plopping down on her copilot seat before giving the master thief a questioning glare.

"Yeah, I know that's the last of the Dust we need. And _no_, communication between Kingdoms has been cut off, remember? The Schnees can whine all they want, but it'll still take _days_ for Vale to learn that the SDC's largest storehouse just got ravaged like a little..." he spared the henchman beside him a passive glance before muttering, "_whatever_ you described to me out there."

"..."

"Shut up. I'm not thinking about it! It's a _NO_. At least make yourself useful and put on some music, you know how I hate it when you cut off a song right before it ends!"

Rolling her eyes, Neo let out a silent chuckle before lifting her foot, which had apparently been bare since coming on the ship, to tap the appropriate button on the aircraft music player.

As the Bullhead lifted off as well, the music could be heard echoing in the surrounding area, ending right before the small armada disappeared into a giant red portal.

_It's the mooost wonderful tiiime_

_Yes the mooost wonderful tiiime_

_Oh the mooost wonderful tiiime_

_Of the yeee-aaaaaaaaarrrrrrr!_

* * *

**A/N:** _Hi there! Long time!_

_Long story short - I was working on the chapter through the FFNet portal and was making great headway when the page refreshed... deleting over **3,000 WORDS**. I'll tell you right now, that's the **one** thing I found can cause me to instantly lose motivation to write for a while. But thanks to plenty of kind words from many of **you** dear readers, I was able to get back over my rut! **Thanks!**_

_Needless to say that another reason for the delay was the unexpectedly-well received time loop fic I've got going on, too. People seem to like my insanity... I know not why... but I'm sure a good number of you can guess where the **Lancaster** influence got to come in from, eh? But seriously... leave it to Jaune to find a way to blame **himself** for his clash with Blake... *facepalms*_

_A few notes - Eireannach is Gaelic for **Irish**. And mixing whiskey and coffee is actually a thing... that is called Irish Coffee. It's very delicious. So are chicken and Waffles. And no, Chicken and Waffles are delicious, not Irish._

_Little known fact about my preferred pairings: my secondary OTP for RWBY remains **Renora** to this day. I have a few good friends who are a lot like them, and it's quite a bit of fun to watch them interacting together! I'm sure anyone can guess my main OTP by now._

_And yes, the hints are starting to be dropped about our little ice cream assailant. And I'm not talking about her top. I mean her **talk **(terrible attempt at a pun, sorry). The hints are real, people. And so is her voice actor :)_

_Last note. **Elric**. Anyone who knows who Qrow's VA is knows what I mean... the Easter Eggs run deep in this bad boy. _

_Also, hope you liked my **RWBY remix** to a seasonal musical favorite!_

_Anyway, please feel free to **Fave, Follow, and Review** to continue supporting the fic as many of you amazing peoples already have. And stay tuned for a whole lot more of everything in the path back to **Knightshade!** Until then, take care..._

**_And Happy Reading!_**


	19. Flagship Diaries

_**Flagship Diaries**_

* * *

"Hm. Oz's really upped the budget since our day."

Both Hunters nodded as the large Bullhead came in, Weiss nodding in rare agreement as it landed on the dock in front of the ten freedom fighters.

"It is the Automated Defense Airship, or ADA, the flagship of Beacon's fleet and Ozpin's Bullhead of choice. It's good, though the Schnee carriers are _much_ more-"

"Blah blah blah, we get it," Qrow noted with a dismissive wave before taking a swig from a new flask, "And I wouldn't be so quick to vouch for Oz's changed ways. Heard he burned through half the budget for this year's tournament on popcorn."

"I'd believe that, too."

Stepping in, the two teams and two Hunters waited for the door to close and braced themselves a bit for when the aircraft took off. It was to be a fairly short flight being that their target was just inside the kingdom of Vale, albeit the crummier parts of it, but Jaune was sure to stay well away from Ruby and her family for safety.

Last night had ended interestingly enough, Jaune explaining the situation to a very skeptical Yang who'd eventually realized just how valid such reactions from the two leaders towards each other would be. This however evolved into Yang loudly explaining the situation to her dad, and by extension, everyone else, much to her amusement and Jaune's bemusement. To him, though, the worst part was likely him glancing over in Blake's direction only to see her impassively reading her book in her bunk. So impassively, that it almost looked forced.

Despite all of that, as he currently stood next to his team half-listening to their lively chatter, Jaune still wished he could have her around to talk with.

It just felt so-

"Hello... everything alright?"

The knight turned up from his musings to glance at his partner's inquisitive smile. He liked to think that he was getting to know Pyrrha better, especially over the last week that they'd gotten to hang out much more with their free time - that he admittedly would've used to grind skills with Blake otherwise - and did feel some pride when he realized that her smile was certainly laced with some concern.

"Everything's... good," Jaune replied lamely.

"I suppose, when you put it that way... I can say the same."

At that, Jaune felt himself coming back from under his cloud of thought as he only saw the concern in her face become more visible. Not like, 'pity for Jaune' concern... but _actual_ concern. And he realized it'd be best to maybe see what he could do to do some digging on his own. Like his mother would say, there was no better way to make your day than by making someone else's.

"Yeah... and it's days like this that I'm actually kinda glad I got paired with someone who's as bad a liar as I am."

A wry smirk from the Champion before she turned to face Jaune, the knight lightly nudging her good-naturedly with his elbow as the aircraft approached the city. It was a good time, he supposed, for him to tell her something he should've told her long before.

"You were... the first person to ever believe in me, you know that?" he noted softly, a sad chuckle escaping his lips as he unwittingly caught all of Pyrrha's attention, "Even when I told my parents I was going to Beacon, they told me not to worry if I ended up having to move back home. How depressing is that?"

"I'm sure they didn't mean it, like that..."

"I guess," he replied honestly, the partners standing side by side as he scratched the back of his head, "I'm just trying to say that... you've always been there for me... even when I didn't deserve it, y'know? And when things changed, and I became, well... stronger, you were still there to support me. So now that I can say it without them being empty words, I want you to know: no matter what happens, I'll always have your back, too."

The smile of her face brightening her own emerald eyes, Pyrrha gave him a slight nod, "That is very sweet of you, Jaune. I appreciate your words and will always be there for you, too..."

Heck. Maybe linking with Blake had granted him some limited _Observe_ skill... but even Jaune could sense how that smile belied the sad sigh that followed it.

"Well I should let you know, I'm gonna be keeping up on my end of the bargain starting now," he then retorted with a warm grin, "And I can tell something's on your mind right now, so... how can I help?"

At that, a surprised chuckle escaped Pyrrha's lips, the Mistrali even becoming a little flushed as she turned her gaze a bit away from the night, "I see... either my expressions have begun to fail my standards for emotional discretion, or you've truly made some progress in perception as well!"

"Meh well... what can I say, it's a gift," he replied proudly, earning a rare snort from the usually composed fighter as she amiably shook her head at him incredulously.

"Truly I am fortunate to have you around then," she retorted with mild sarcasm, likely the highest level of sarcasm of which she was capable before both teens slowly fell quiet and she pensively organized her next words, "But... you would be correct, Jaune. The has been something on my mind, for quite some time now..."

All semblance of humor gone, the knight listened attentively as Pyrrha's gaze remained locked on the floor and her hand went up to grab her opposite elbow in front of her protectively, "I... am not sure how I feel. It's new... and different... and concerning..."

If Jaune was wondering what could possibly disturb the girl known as Invincible practically around all of Remnant - and he was - her next words certainly answered him, "I feel... like I've been defeated."

"..."

She glanced up at him, emerald eyes trying to find recognition in cerulean ones but only seeing the gears madly whirring in his head instead.

"Lost? But... you've never," he paused for only a moment, enough for a single possibility to float through his frazzled mind in slow motion like a fly through a cannon fight before he quickly put it away in dismissal at its unlikelihood, "lost... before..."

The meaningful gaze she gave in reply ushered the little fly back in like prime bait, though it was still a bit reluctant to break the surface into conscious thought as she added, "What if I had? What if I have? I... wouldn't even know how to handle it..."

"Eesh," he drawled tactfully, debating and quickly erring towards the side of his usual mode, "The woes of Pyrrha Nikos... how to handle losing for the first time..."

A bit stunned at his turn back to humor in the face of their situation, she couldn't help adopting an expression that reflected it, "You mock me?"

"Not at all," he replied warmly, a small smile settling in as he continued, "Pyr, I've lost more times growing up than some people do in their whole lives; I think for the first time in months, someone has actually come to the right place by asking _me_ for advice! Look..."

Pyrrha visibly flinched, goosebumps lining her skin as Jaune oh so gingerly brushed aside her hair and deftly unhooked one of the emerald pendants hanging from her headpiece, merely reversing the process he'd seen her do countless times in the morning while getting ready for class.

"See this?" he noted, pointing at the brilliant green stone with its intricate starburst design, "This gem here was once in a fight. And one that it lost miserably, I'll tell ya, countless times... did you know that?"

A slow shake of her head, but now more in curiosity than anything else as he continued, "Oh yeah. When it was nothing more than a rock, it went up against a jewel saw... and lost every time. Every cut, chipping at it, taking away from it, whittling it down... but it didn't shatter. Never broke. And _now_... well, it's being worn by the best fighter of her generation..."

Entirely taken aback by his wizened explanation, she stood motionless as Jaune simply replaced the trinket and locked his gaze with hers, "See, Pyr, what I'd say to you about losing for the first time is _this_: You learn more from losing than from winning. You learn to keep going... without losing the best part of yourself on the way."

The Mistrali looked at her partner with a mix of dumbfounded surprise and a turmoil of other emotions before finally stating mousily, "That... was actually _really_ good advice..."

"Yeah well. It kinda happens when your mother drills the same metaphor into your head whenever you bite off more than you can chew during childhood."

"And how often was that?"

"Hm... Only on days that ended with a _'Y'_..."

A wry chuckle from the Mistrali before she noted carefuly, "Well... you're certainly right. About the advice. And I'll surely take your advice to heart, Jaune. It's just... sometimes I think there are much worse things that one can lose than their pride."

And that buzzing, niggling feeling finally breaking the surface in the back of his mind, Jaune finally began in realization.

"Wait... did you, like," a short pause, Pyrrha almost swearing she could see the light bulb going off in his head as hope swelled in her chest, "Lose a bet with Nora and Ren about me and Ruby being for real or something? Cuz we're totally _not_..."

Watching her deflate and turn to give him her profile like she did in the next second only caused him further confusion and consternation, feeling his own heart deflating at watching someone dear to him react that way as well.

"No... but now that I think about it, I'm surprised I did not realize before that she and I each stood about the same chance in this case..."

With brows furrowed, Jaune's mouth could only slowly open without making a sound before she crossed her arms with a sigh and finally filled the silence with her own, "It's almost childish, really, the way that I've felt this particular monster operates. It started with the small things; seeing the way you joked, or shared smiles... and then it grew with the time you spent together. The worst part is that it was helping you grow as a fighter; by leaps and bounds, no less! Then yesterday happened, and I saw you - your reaction, how you looked at Ren and Nora, and where you continued sneaking glances for the rest of the night - and that's when I realized that the place I'd strived for once was taken before I ever knew it. But in the end, I suppose... all I ever wanted after initiation... was for you to look at me the way you do at her now..."

At that moment, the knight instinctively glanced towards Blake, who sat on the center couch in the middle of the commons area and merely turned a page in her book as Yang and Ruby were arguing about who-knows-what over her head at either side of her spot on the couch. He sighed somberly, almost shaking his head at the impassive look in her amber eyes that he'd hoped she'd once put aside for him... alas, that no longer seemed to be the case as she glanced up at him for only a second and simply went back to her book.

She'd kept the ponytail from yesterday. Centered behind her head and not as high as Weiss', her naturally unruly wavy hair held its form surprisingly well but did as it pleased as it got near the bottom. It suited her, strangely enough...

Turning back, Jaune froze a bit as he realized Pyrrha was giving him a soft glare, her arms still crossed as she then turned to face out the window nearby.

"Like _that_..."

A hurried glance back at Blake, then back again at Pyrrha.

Oh.

...

_OHHHHH_.

"I'd, I'd never," Jaune practically stuttered, heat quickly rising to his cheeks as so many of her attempts to capture his attention in the past started making sense, "I'd never even thought that you... for... m-me? And-"

"I know," Pyrrha replied, her bangs having fallen back and now obscuring her expression from the side, "I _know_. And therein lied the problem. I waited for an opportunity, a sign... a _look_, if only a look were enough. But it never came... I waited, but I believe I waited too long. And now I-"

"Haven't lost a thing."

Her breath hitching as she snapped her head to the side to see Jaune's hand taking her own, Pyrrha looked up at him in question as he elaborated, "You never lost me, Pyr... I was always around. Fact is, you're way more than any billboard or medal or cereal box could ever make you out to be... you're _really_ special. As a person. And on top of that, I'll even be the first one to point out that you can teach a flower to be pretty - don't let anyone convince you otherwise!"

Quickly glancing around to check if anyone else had heard his words, Pyrrha could only flash a small, goofy smile at him with flushed cheeks as she turned back to him, "Jaune, you don't have to-"

"No, really... I do," he continued understandingly, his hand going from hers to her shoulder reassuringly, "It's about time you heard that from someone who _really_ meant it... but like I said, I'll always be around for you. As your partner, and as a friend. No matter what. Cuz that's what _Arkos_ is all about!"

Understanding the meaning of his words and the platonic motivation behind them, a moment passed as Pyrrha began to nod before barely holding back a chuckle at the new name, "A-Arkos?"

"You know, that thing where we put our names together?"

"Right, no, I-I get it..."

A slight deadpan as he saw her hold back another chuckle, "What, do you not like it?"

"No, no!" she retorted quickly, "It's... good?"

Crossing his arms, Jaune simply glared out the window, "I sense hesitation."

Shaking her head at him, Pyrrha's smile eventually faded once more before glancing down at her boots and shifting her weight from one leg to the other unsurely. Losing... was certainly not easy. But maybe Jaune was right, how would it be possible to mourn the loss of something that had never come to fruition? The loss of an opportunity, perhaps? ...Perhaps.

But at that moment, Pyrrha Nikos began to find solace in the fact that after all, she still had a _partner_ in whom she could always trust would support her...

"You know... she really does care about you."

His mock-stern bravado immediately coming down, mildly-dorky-Jaune returned at the statement, "Huh?"

"Blake. She tries very hard not to show it," Pyrrha explained, glancing up at Jaune with a small smile, "It's probably from pride. Or denial. Likely both. Something... happened recently between you both, didn't it?"

His mouth opening with barely a sound coming out, Jaune finally replied with a nervous shrug, "I... I mean, yeah. She snapped, I snapped... I shouldn't have lost my head like I did, though..."

Taking a moment to wonder what he'd even look like in that state being that the thought of him like that was something completely foreign to her, Pyrrha mused aloud, "Well they always say hindsight is twenty-twenty..."

"Don't they know it..."

But letting out a final sigh, Pyrrha now squared her shoulders a bit as her posture straightened out, Jaune realizing that she had just gone back to the stern trainer mode she'd use on him over the roof as she replied with a determined smirk, "But that does not mean all is lost! I caught her sneaking almost as many glances at you during classes last week as the number of pages she'd read in her books - that _has_ to count for something..."

Jaune turned to face the commons area, the four members of team RWBY on the couch chatting happily - even Blake, and boy he did miss her smile as he saw it - and Qrow and Tai looking over the mission brief together near a corner. Ren and Nora were oblivious to it all, the two childhood friends and now maybe more sidehugging by the window as Nora pointed out another random object in their never-ending game of 'I Spy.' Nora's grin was there as always, as was Ren's placid smirk at the girl almost always by his side.

Watching them together was... really something...

"Yeah, maybe it does," Jaune found himself admitting out loud, turning back to face his partner with hope, "So... how do I make it right?"

The reply was... not what he'd hoped.

"_Hmm_," Pyrrha hummed aloud in amusement, as if teasing the knight for asking a girl about another girl, "I'm afraid Blake's mind is as much of a mystery to me as it is to you, Jaune... that's something you're simply going to need to figure out. But I told you once..."

She placed a hand on his shoulder before he could sigh in preemptive defeat, "Be the great person you already _are:_ You can't get it wrong if it's the truth."

"R-Right," Jaune finally began, now finding himself being the one that ended up getting cheered up after his attempt to cheer up his partner, "Right! I'm, I'm gonna do it, then! Just you watch!"

And turning around with all the confidence the scraggly blonde ever had, Pyrrha watched him walk towards the ravenette on the couch beside her team with a somber smile.

Yes... no matter what, even if it still hurt from time to time... she would always be there to support him, too.

* * *

**A/N: _WHAT!? PHANTOM!? WHY U MAKE CHAPTER SO SHORT!?_**

_Gahhhh... I know. Kinda jerkish of me._

_Well, there are a couple reasons. **First**, this arc is a beast. I mean, and I don't wanna sound like I'm tooting any horns cuz I'm not, but there's A LOT that's about to happen. Banter, Boss Fights... and possible dramatic reconciliation... hehe. In short, the reason is that the arc is **at least 40k+ words** (about 4 chapters if it were the normal lengths) but this one just don't slice easy... so yeah. I'm gonna dice it up nice and freely-like. On the bright side, it'll make room for the occasional omake and stuff. **Second**, it'll keep me motivated. I've read stories like **College Fool's Fall of Professor Arc** which is about 1.5k words per chapter - and is absolutely **BEAUTIFUL**, might I add - and I barely realize how short the chapters are until I've caught up. So while my muse for **LDR** keeps barking in my ears, I figure I'll be catering to **TGG** with chapters at this length._

_**Buuuuut**, it wouldn't be right if I didn't get more input for those who matter the most - **YOU!** So for the remainder of the month, I'm putting up a **poll** for your preference - 3-6k words, 7-10k words, or no preference! Help me out keeping **TGG** alive and strong, yeah? Much love to each and every one of you awesome peeps and don't forget to **Fave, Follow, and Review** if you haven't yet to show your support! Take care,_

**_And Happy Reading!_**

_P.S: A moment of silence for Arkos._

_..._

_Cool beans. Woot! Back to work! _


	20. Back Into The Fray

_**Back Into The Fray**_

* * *

"Be the great person you already _are:_ You can't get it wrong if it's the truth..."

"R-Right... _Right!_ I'm, I'm gonna do it, then! Just you watch!"

She was right in his sights, the knight's determination all but shining through as he couldn't help but start to grin at the prospect. Blake was right there, as happy as she'd ever be talking to her team, and maybe soon with him once more... and as he made his way over to where they sat, hope began bubbling forth from within as he watched her gaze seemingly begin slowly converging towards his direction until-

"Whoa- hey there, young one!"

...A certain gun-toting scruffy blonde with a big grin moved perfectly in between them.

"Now uh, couldn't help but notice there that spring in your step as you were walking towards the _ladies_," Taiyang noted smoothly, countering Jaune's subtle motions to try and step or look around him with subtle counters of his own until Jaune froze at the last word, "Being that my baby doll spent all that time yesterday clearing up that little _mis_understanding involvin' you and my lil sweet pea last night, I'm sure we'd just hate for that awf'ly happy head of yours to make a whole new misunderstanding happen all over again, right?"

Jaune could only gape at how twisted he had things, unable to really protest against this guy who could easily snap him like a twig if the fact that he was _Qrow's_ superior was anything to go by...

"Alrighty, then!" Tai exclaimed happily, his motion to amiably pound the knight in the shoulder giving him the briefest glance at team RWBY being entertained by the sight of Qrow tussling a clearly-accosted Ruby's head before the impact of the aforementioned pound nearly sent Jaune sprawling forward, "_Good talk!_ Time to round the troops - everybody gather round, time for final briefing!"

Catching the attention of the other eight passengers, everyone did so, Qrow rendezvousing with the veteran Hunter in front of both teams before Taiyang powered up his scroll and jerked it forwards to slingshot a large hologram of blueprints to the middle of the area.

"This here is the floor plans for a certain nightclub owned by Hei Xiong," Tai began, a few students taken aback at his sudden shift into an all-business tone, "A club we're headed to now. Being that it's in the crummier parts o' town and we ain't got any prior knowledge of its... er, yeah baby doll?"

Tai paused at the sight of his eldest daughter's hand up in the air from the other side of the slowly-rotating hologram, Yang's grin only all-too-obvious as she began, "Ain't a problem. I got a history there; me and Junior go way back! Let's just say I'm a regular and... uh... yeah..."

The blonde brawler's voice now trailing off as well like her father's had a moment before, Yang could only taper off with a nervous chuckle under her father's unexpectedly stern glare.

"Oh _really?_ A _regular_, huh?" Tai stated pointedly, his gaze lingering until Qrow wordlessly bailed her out with a tap on the Hunter's shoulder and a pointed glance at the glowing iteration of the task at hand to which Tai nodded with a sigh... but not before noting, "We'll have words later... _but_, being that Yang has _*sigh*_ _prior_, history with that club... then I guess that actually clears us up for a little side-op to be ready in case things go south."

Ruby sent Yang a concerned glance at that; Tai had used Yang's _first_ name... and from their dad, that usually wasn't a good thing.

But shutting off the hologram, seeing that it'd no longer be needed, Tai continued directly, "That being said, we're splitting into two teams. Me and Qrow'll take four of you, and Yang'll take the lead with three more into the club. So that includes her partner Grumpy Cat, and..."

Tai glanced over the students, clearly ignoring Blake's deadpan, until settling on Jaune with a less-than-comforting smirk, "And..._ raspberry chapstick_. I'm sure baby doll can handle you just fine in case you get out of line!"

Despite Jaune's ill-disguised groan at the new nickname, Yang let out a sigh in relief at the usage of her dad's reverting to her usual nickname... even if it was at the expense of the knight. But as Pyrrha made to go to Jaune's side with an assuring smile, Qrow held out his hand to stop her.

"Wai-wait, hold on. We'll need her," the scruffy Hunter began, Taiyang's eyes suddenly going wide in realization and beginning to nod in agreement to an invisible reminder between them, "Knowing what she can _really_ do with that Semblance of hers, P-Money's actually gonna make our end of the job... _much_ easier..."

"Oh?" was all Pyrrha could supply in response in a mix of curiosity and what almost passed off as annoyance through her usually calm countenance.

"Yep. So what you can do... you can, _multitask_ with it, right?" Tai continued with a knowing smile, hiking his thumb behind him towards the cargo bay as if everyone knew what he was referring to... and they didn't. But Pyrrha gave a cautious nod regardless, knowing that they seemed like they'd decided to have her help either way.

"Greeeat," Qrow noted with a toothy smile before turning to the rest of team JNPR, "So what you two packin'? We gotta leave one of you tykes to handle what's-his-face's back..."

"_Jaune_," the knight corrected gruffly with a deadpan, "And don't you remember our weapons from, oh maybe... when you _throttled_ us in the cafeteria!?"

"I don't _know_," the scruffy Hunter replied with mock wonder without missing a beat, "You kids went down too fast for me to _check_."

Jaune scoffed, Qrow keeping a narrow-eyed gaze and smug smirk at him until Tai stepped forward with a glance at Ren and Nora, "Kids?"

Ren pulled out StormFlower, to which both veteran Hunters nodded in acknowledgment, but then Nora flipped out her giant hammer - once again, from who knows where - and set it on the floor with what left a small crack on the surface... eliciting a slightly more excited reaction from the Hunters as they traded knowing glances.

"That changes things..."

"We might even be able to pinch _two_ with her on the flank..."

"Ohoooo, _boy_..."

Weiss glanced back and forth between the scheming men who were all but biting their lips with restrained mirth, "Umm... I think a proper debriefing may be in order, here... shouldn't it?"

"Not at all, _Chuckles_," Tai quickly noted, hands held primly behind his back as he shifted back to all-business at the drop of a dime, "We've no reason to explain our backup plans when we've earned the right to play things close to the chest after _years_ of protecting our beloved four kingdoms..."

"Heeeere we go," Ruby muttered with a sigh, knowing full well the righteous rant to come.

"...From mighty Grimm incursions you'll never even _read_ about!" Qrow proclaimed with a finger raised, pacing back and forth in alternation with Tai's pacing as well.

"...From natural disasters, you _couldn't_ even imagine!" Tai continued, finger also raised now while he kept pacing.

"...From devious organizations," Qrow noted mysteriously before turning on his heel to point at the Schnee with severity, "Whose names you're not allowed to _know_..."

"Dad..." was all Yang stated, Ruby beside her still shaking her head when the Hunters decided the kids had had enough drama.

"Look, baby doll, we'll tell ya when we tell ya," Tai noted with a grin, dropping the solemn façade, "But for now, you and Grumpy Cat take the lead while Raspberry Chapstick brings along Bulletproof Monk. You get in, make contact, and learn what you can about the Red Queen - if that _Drag_wick bum is working with her now, odds are that his ex-associates at this Fight Club might know more than they're letting on. It's our best lead and we're taking it..."

His gaze softening a bit on his eldest daughter, Taiyang finished as the craft evidently touched down at the landing point, "Just... take care of yourself. And don't. Underestimate. _Anybody_."

With the side door opening to grant the students passage to the shadier part of town, Yang gave her father a reassuring thumbs up before tussling her sister's hair, much to Ruby's chagrin; Yang and Blake making their way out with a parting wave for Weiss as Jaune and Ren traded unsure glances before heading to the door.

"Jaune," Pyrrha began, the knight turning to give her a big smile at the doorway.

"I know... Got you on speed dial."

The Mistrali grinned in reply even as Nora took the opportunity to give her partner a massive sloth hug, the two guys joining the partners outside as the doors shut behind them and ADA lifted off.

"Any idea what they're planning?" Ren noted, looking up at the craft with scrunched nose and brows against the lingering air gusts from the engines down to the students, "I can't imagine how well they'll serve as back up if they're airborne..."

"Not sure," Blake replied flatly, eyes trailing the craft as it disappeared behind the skyline on the more dilapidated parts of town, "But it looks like they went in the direction of the forest... strange..."

Giving Ren a cursory glance with her small shrug, Jaune sighed as she seemed to deliberately pass over him with her gaze as she turned to follow her partner. If Pyrrha was right... then Blake was trying _really_ hard.

"So... what's the plan?" Blake asked the blonde brawler as the four students walked down the street, the Bullhead wisely having been programmed to leave them a few blocks for their destination to avoid any issues.

Yang lazily nodded her head left and right in thought as they continued, "I'm thinking... Junior may be easy to tease, but he's not exactly the most predictable guy..."

"Whaddaya mean?" Jaune asked, he and Ren trailing not too far behind the girls as they rounded a corner to the main street where the club seemed to be located.

"Well, I've never really seen a Faunus in that club - either the first time I went or the last," she pondered aloud, Jaune quirking a brow at her sudden pensive demeanor... she was her father's daughter, after all, "And I don't wanna risk things getting dicey like the first time just because I decided to shake things up... especially after last time didn't bring any problems. And I was with Neptune that time..."

Finally stopping in her tracks, Yang turned to face the three teens even as the dull thrum of the club music echoed through the street from the nearby club, her gaze settling on Jaune with a small grin, "Well, Saber-boy, looks like you're gonna be my escort this time!"

Jaune sighed with a knowing glare, "Y'know, now I see where you get your terrible nickname skills from..."

Her grin simply grew wider with pride, "Yep! Anyway, Arc and me are gonna head into the club - Blakey, you and... hehe, Bulletproo-"

"_Don't_," Ren interrupted with as close to a glower from his normally stoic face that Jaune had ever seen, Yang simply raising her hands in placation with a small smirk at the first thing she'd ever seen get under his skin, "I'm not even a monk..."

"Right. Kay well, you and Blake'll watch our backs from outside in case they try anything. They won't know I'm coming with extra company and I wanna keep it that way..." she grinned at them both, "I'm pretty sure the two closest things Beacon has to real-life Ninjas should be able to keep a low profile."

Receiving eye-rolls from both brunettes, Ren then glanced at Jaune while flashing his scroll, "Keep it handy. If it's over Blake and my heads, then we call Pyrrha immediately."

"Oka-wah!"

"Okay, mushy male goodbye time over!" Yang interrupted, taking Jaune's arm with hers as she then led the pair towards the club while Blake and Ren made to go around the side.

"Yang... losing... circulation here..."

Jaune's not-very-subtle attempt to extract himself was clearly futile, his fellow blonde clearly having planned for the position as the pair strode up the steps towards the fairly large pair of bouncers at either end of the entryway.

"Hey guys!" Yang began, placing her other hand over Jaune's arm with an easygoing smile at the guys in suits and red aviators despite the fact they were in the shade of the club entryway, "So I got a new one for ya - some girl the other day said she recognized me from the Vegetarian-theme Club down the street... but I'd never met _herbivore!_ Eh? Eh?"

Jaune watched, the two bounders make somewhat... different reactions. While one nervously tried to force a chuckle at the ear-grinding joke, the other simply seemed to reach for his sword.

"Sorry kid, but this ain't a prom venue. Get lo-"

"Ah-haHA!" the other bouncer interrupted while stopping the first one's drawing of his weapon, much to Jaune's surprise, actually tipping the tiny-looking fedora on his oversized head towards Yang politely, "Miss Xiao Long! Please forgive him, he's new... y-you know, after we had to replace the _last_ door guy who didn't laugh at your pun..."

The first bouncer's eyes seemingly widening behind his aviators, judging by the scrunching up of the blubbery folds of his forehead above the shades in surprise, he stated with a slight bow, "Y-You're-? I'm s-so sorry!"

"No worries," the blonde brawler chirped with an idle flip of her hair, the fresh scent of orangewood and honeydew momentarily invading the poor knight's nostrils beside her with a positively dizzying effect as the men hastily opened the doors and let them through, "Thanks, Jeeves."

Finally shaking off the haze from the admittedly alluring young woman beside him, Jaune was relieved to find that she let go of his arm as soon as the doors shut behind them, leaving them alone in the short empty corridor between the entryway and the main club entrance.

"So, any reason why you had to practically _wear_ me just to make another corny pun out there?" the knight huffed as soon as he took a step or two away from her, his companion rearing her head back with an exaggerated sigh before turning back to him to explain.

"Jaune. Rule number _one_ about information brokers - they know _everything_, even if they don't," she began, the student glaring at her in question before she gave a pointed glance at his weapon, "_Especially_ when word gets out about some kid who took out a whole cave of Grimm with a golden white sword cuz some Vale cop decided to run his mouth..."

Jaune looked down at Crocea Mors in realization, slowly piecing together her reasoning and lifting his head to meet her gaze with newfound respect, "And if a broker were looking to beef up security at a moment's notice... it'd be by telling his boys out front to keep a lookout... Yang, that's actually-"

"Kinda _genius?_" she finished for him with a knowing smirk, hands on hips as she continued airily, "I know~ It's not everyday you meet someone with the five B's of perfection..."

A raised brow from the knight, earning a scoff from his temporary partner.

"Beauty, Brains, Blonde, and Brawn...!"

"Umm... Yang," Jaune noted slowly, already starting to lament the stereotype she was already fulfilling of those blessed with golden locks, "You mentioned... five B's?"

Her grin now turning somewhat mischievous, the brawler simply takes both hands off her hips to point at her more... _eye-catching_, assets, only to cause Jaune to throw a hand up with a loud groan.

"_Should've_ seen that one coming!"

"_Hey_ \- better having _these_ gauntlets by your side than having _this_ gauntlet in your face!~" Yang stated challengingly with a smirk, lifting Ember Celica for the _second_ half of her statement.

"_For the last time_, me and Ruby-"

"I know," Yang cut in, her smirk actually seeming to fade as she held up a hand to stop him before he could go full rant, "I know... you always did strike me as a One-Woman kind of guy, anyway..."

"_Thank you_," Jaune retorted righteously as he approached her side to walk towards the main club entrance... before furrowing his brows at her and keeping a small distance between them just to be safe, "Wait, _'one woman'_? You don't mean-?"

"Heh, not _me_, Vomit Boy," Yang noted with a wry smirk in his direction, "Not anymore. The whole kissed-my-sister-first thing kinda kills the appeal for me now. Not that I won't enjoy seeing you squirm every now and then, but just knowing she actually had the cajoles to have her first kiss before _me_..."

Yang's eyes widened, catching her mistake and clamping her mouth shut as she and Jaune suddenly stopped before reaching the entrance a second time. Needless to say, his eyes widened as well as the realization dawned on him.

"Wait... Yang... _you_...?"

"Not a soul hears about this, _got it!?_" Yang snapped suddenly, eyes going red in defense for a moment to make sure he got the point, "I got a _rep_ to protect, k?"

A cautious shrug from the knight, to which Yang calmed down to the point of letting her shoulders slouch as her gaze drifted to the side.

"But... yeah. I might've teased enough guys in my day. But usually any invitation to a kiss preceded a kiss from my fist, so..."

"Oh... um, okay..."

"Rrrgh, now things got awkward," Yang then began at Jaune's hesitance, the knight quickly finding that 'awkward moments' were _not_ something his fellow blonde was used to having, "And now it's gonna take forever to get back into the _proper_ emotional state to deal with Junior..."

Jaune frowned at her... there had to be something he could do to salvage the issue...

Thankfully, the idea didn't take to long to hatch in his mind, no matter what he had to lose because of it.

"Well, uh... you're good with puns," Jaune began, wincing at the lie he was barely able to let himself eke out - at least she was too busy sulking to see it, "So... how 'bout we come up with a team-up name? You and me? If it's gonna be a temporary thing, might as well make it worth it... so uh, I'll start. How 'bout... _Gold?_"

"Ew. _Oum_, no. Were you even_ trying?_" Yang quickly shot back, gaze snapping up to the knight with furrowed brows, to which he internally grinned at his ulterior plan of getting her back on track working so far, "You can do better than _that_ \- actually, scratch that. I might be giving you too much credit."

She stood up straighter now, hand to chin in thought as she mused aloud, "Well... my name literally means 'Dragon,' and you _technically_ look like a knight... I think we might have something there..."

Jaune pursed his lips in thought, ignoring the brief sting when he recalled from where he'd gotten that habit from before slowly muttering his contribution to the brainstorm, "Maybe... Dragonsla-"

"Got it! _Dragonslayer!_" Yang exclaimed, Jaune scoffing before he reconsidered it and sheepishly scratched the back of his neck.

"I dunno... now that I think about it, it kinda feels one-sided," he began thoughtfully, beginning to motion towards her as he continued, "I mean, Dragonslayer? If people think 'Slaying a _Dragon_,' they're probably gonna think it's a play on words against-"

"No, no... that's where you're wrong, my blue-eyed friend," Yang began, a familiar shadow of double entendre shrouded over her smirk, "You see, you're right about it being one-sided; but if it's talk about a Dragon_slayer_... then that person's gonna be _me!_"

Momentarily confused, Jaune followed her finger that turned out to be coyly pointing at his... nether regions...

"DARN IT, YANG! _Gahhhhh!_"

Cackling at the peeved knight holding both hands to his head in disbelief at the pun, Yang spoke up at herself with a nod, "Ehehhh... _yep_, I'm back. Let's do this!"

Giving Jaune but a moment to recompose himself, the brawler grandly shoved the secondary club doors with all the confidence she ever had, her grin and satisfied gaze already scanning the area which was surprisingly decently filled despite the time of day before settling on the bar.

"C'mon, Jaune. This way."

"We're _definitely_ coming up with a better name first chance we get, though."

Beginning to make his way to her side, Jaune tried to keep his sights away from what the armed thugs beginning to stare at them were wearing... and what the girls dancing around them _weren't_ wearing... before feeling an elbow lightly nudging his side. He saw Yang giving him a rare fully-blown smile.

"Thanks, by the way," she began, her smile becoming a bit more sly as they walked along in her way of keeping him from freaking out at their surroundings, "And don't think I didn't notice what you did back there... acting all lame with your naming skills just to make me feel better. That would've won some serious brownie points with me... if you hadn't make out with my_ sister_."

"Eheh, uh... right. Fair enough," Jaune noted, stifling a gulp before casting another glance at the people around them.

He was slightly relieved at first to see that such a number of scary people practically surrounding them with all manner of reddish blades seemingly wary of them, and he thought at it was because of her history. She'd apparently blown the place up once, after all.

But what began to perplex him was the fact that they were staring, not at her... but at _him_. At the weapon girded at his hip, to be precise.

Turns out Yang's bet was on the money, after all.

"Aaaand, here we are," Yang declared with muted sense of mock-excitement as she presented her fellow blonde with a seat at the bar, taking a glance back at the few people still starting behind them before adding with a smirk, "Get used to it, Saber-boy. Looks like you've got some serious cred in the underworld now. And you're chillin' with me, so..."

But before Jaune could shoot back anything resembling a witty response, a seriously gruff chuckle interrupted him first.

"Mhmhmhm... I dunno, Blondie. Keep coming around these parts and I might have to start up a tab for ya."

"Thanks, but no drinks this time, Junior. Me and my friend are here on business, so we'll try to keep it short," she retorted casually enough, leaning against the counter on an elbow at the frankly _large_ man cleaning out a shot glass in a vest and matching pair of shades with every other thug in the club, "Of course... how short our stay is, is _entirely_ up to you~"

Junior kept his head tilted forward, as if acknowledging how dumb it was to wear aviators indoors and trying to be as subtle as possible by seeing his surroundings from above the tinted shades as he turned to look at Jaune. The knight in turn tried to keep as flat a face as someone totally cool, calm, and collected might be in this situation - in other words, channeling his inner Neptune.

_I'm cool... Cold, like ice. No, colder than ice. I'm **ice** cold... **No!** ...I'm **Weiss** cold- ah, crap._

He almost didn't catch Junior snorting at him, a short affair that seemed more insulting than anything he could've said at the moment before turning to Yang, "So you bring fish-face here to negotiate this time? What, the pretty-boy with the blue hair from last time wasn't weird enough for you?"

"Hey now, you know bringing personal into a business thing ain't good manners," Yang chided smoothly, leaning a bit forwards on the counter - an evident ploy to get Junior's gaze focused on something, or _two_ things, other than Jaune's failing suave persona, "Why don't we get back to the topic at hand, hm?"

Not even bothering to mask his momentary downwards drop of his gaze, something Jaune had to say was pretty impressive on Yang's part that she didn't throttle him right then and there. But there was a niggling in the back of his head starting that told him that she might not leave without them getting even first...

"Alright," Junior began with a dismissive huff, appeased with his ogling instincts now satisfied, "If you're looking for that lady again, haven't seen her. If you're looking for terrorists, they've up and left. Good luck finding them wherever they've headed out to..."

"Oh we _know_ where they've gone," Yang noted smugly, standing up straight and crossing her arms to deliver the coup de grace, "And I got a good feeling _you_ know where they've gone, too. So tell me, Junior... ever heard of _The Red Queen?_"

In the moment that followed, Jaune was actually pleased to see the cool-headed man's sudden reaction of stopping the cleaning of the glass as a sign that he knew what she was talking about.

What he _didn't_ expect, though... was how everything _else_ seemed to stop the moment right after. Music, dancing... and did that guy with a teddy bear head just pull out an Uzi?

"Ohhhhh... _Blondie_," the large man began, putting the glass and towel down on the other side of the counter with the same low chuckle, "For the record, I like you. Really..."

"I wouldn't blame you," Yang noted, her eyes narrowed by just a fraction as the man slowly began making his way around the side of the bar counter and she made a subtle nod to Jaune to ensure he understood that something was about to go down, "I'm sure there aren't too many girls out there who've left you with a bigger case of blue balls than I did..."

"Eheh, you're right about that," Junior concurred, the fact he actually laughed at the pun actually putting her on edge, "So you gotta believe me when I say that I had full intention to let you go as easily as every other time, even after the first time. And I gotta tell you, there's more irony in that fact than you'll probably ever know... but you've just said the three little words that tie my hands, now forcing me not to let you out of here... in one piece."

"Oh, that's not very fair," Yang continued with a faintly teasing tone, even as Jaune got out of his eat to stand beside her as the place emptied out to leave the teens surrounded by gangsters, "_The_ is a pretty common word..."

"And now, so are these weapons!" Junior exclaimed as he came around the side of the bar with a flourish, every gang member drawing their weapons that went from pearlescent crimson to a _very_ familiar shade of pale blue, "I hope you like them; I've been meaning to give them a test run on some punks worth killing... guess today's my lucky day."

Jaune's shoulder's drooping as he saw a random mook hand Junior the biggest club-like rocket launcher he'd ever seen - also glowing blue - a few cogs fell in place in his head before starting the fastest whisper-conversation with Yang he'd ever had with anyone.

"You brought me for my _sword_-"

"_Course_ I brought you for your sword-"

"Those are _mana_ weapons-"

"I know-"

"_Big_ ones-"

"I _know_-"

"We could _really_ use-"

"I KNOW," Yang cut in again with a barely-restrained whisper, actually turning quickly to face him as she finished as quietly as could be allowed, "You think I gave him a view of my twins just for kicks!? Scroll-under-counter-trick, _genius _\- they're already in _position_."

"Oh."

"Hope you two are done having your last lover's quarrel," Junior now began, arming his weapon as he pushed his shades up into place with a grin, "Cuz it's time for me to collect that _kiss_..."

"Whoa now, he may be into brunettes," Yang began with a confident grin, loudly now as she engaged Ember Celica and Jaune unsheathed his sword with a slight blush at her accurate insight into his _real_ interest, "But I don't think you're Jaune's _type_..."

Junior grimaced, "Cute. You got spunk, kid, but I suggest you lay down and take this one like a good bimbo. Fighting back is only gonna make this way harder - and considering how much stuff we've broken in the past, I just can't think of any reason to break things anymore."

"Then clearly you've never made an omelet."

Yang slowly turned to give her fellow blonde a proud smirk and a nod, "Beat me by _one_ second... ready?"

Jaune nodded back before turning to face the club master, he and Yang adlibbing off each other as they stood back to back, "Hate to break something else to ya, buddy-"

"-but brace them baby blues-"

"-cuz today's the day they're _crushed_-"

"-_by the smoldering blondes you'll remember aaas..._"

And pointing a gauntlet at the man as Jaune did the same with his sword, both students' Auras flared hot as every halberd, bazooka, and gunblade pointed at them before exclaiming in unison:

"_DRAGONHEART!_"

* * *

**A/N:** _Ahahahahhhhhhh... ahh._

_Okay, I'll admit I didn't try as hard with the Yang/Jaune name as I did with 'Knightshade', but can you really blame me? My heart is only behind one ship and one ship alone - my OTP, **Knightshade!**_

_Speaking of which, the time of reconciliation is nigh! How will it happen! How will they fare! How will Junior's balls be broken NEXT!?_

_Pfft, beats me._

_Kidding, it'll be fun. And Blake needs some more page-time,** for reals.**_

_I owe everyone an apology - aside from the Groundhog Day omake for **LDR**, I've actually been tied up as new co-writer to a new story with the very awesome author of** Shattered Arc** and **The Light of Remnant**, **ImSoAwesome**, known as **Between the Lines**! (accessible through hyperlink from my FFNet profile page - I know, the link actually** works!**)_

_A story where Remnant is under a much darker plague of War involving all four kingdoms against the superpower known as White Fang, one young Faunus' wish to escape it all leads her back into the arms of a certain blonde and blue-eyed childhood friend. The story may be AU, but the feels are **real** ^.^_

_And yes... it's a **Knightshade** fic :)_

_So if you're wondering where I've been, give it a look-see - **ISA** and me are working on **Ch4** as you read this! (unless it's like, after 2/4/16, cuz then more's probably been posted since then)._

_As always, so much love to you guys for supporting me and my crazy ideas of having Beacon's resident **guarded ball of feels** become an arrow-launching **super-Huntress**, and don't hesitate to **Fave, Follow, and Review** if you haven't already!_

_..._

_Now, I've been told I need to practice making shorter omakes... so this is me... making a shorter omake. **Crossov-omake**, that is._

* * *

_**Crossov-omake #Ilostcount:** Guardians of the Galaxy_

* * *

Junior grimaced, "Cute. You got spunk, kid, but I suggest you lay down and take this one like a good bimbo. Fighting back is only gonna make this way harder - and considering how much stuff we've broken in the past, I just can't think of any reason to break things anymore."

"Then clearly you've never made an omelet."

Yang slowly turned to give her fellow blonde a proud smirk and a nod, "Beat me by _one_ second... uh... Jaune? What's with your face. And _where'd_ you get that huge red trench coat!?"

The rogue knight stood now, between an incredulous Yang and a horde of goons armed to the teeth, with the biggest stink-eye at the club master that most mooks there who'd never been married yet had ever SEEN.

He was indeed also wearing a long red trench coat, which he dramatically opened on one side with his arm to reveal the glowing sword girded at his hip underneath.

"No, Yang," the rogue knight began with a gruff voice laced with gritty ill-intent, "Call me... JAUN-DU."

_Wheet!_

Every gangster jumped at the single whistle from the rogue knight that caused the ancestral blade to rise up to eye level, causing a bead of sweat to run down Junior's brow as a second sustained whistle from Jaun-du caused the sword to settle horizontally in mid air and point threateningly at the crowd in front of him.

As soon as the whistle stopped and a deathly silence befell the club, Jaun-du let out a toothy grin.

_Wheeeeetwheetwheet-whe-whe-whe-wheeeeuuuuuwheeeeeeeeuuuu...!_

And just like that, a string of whistles from the rogue knight sent the glowing blade surrounded by bluish-white energy soaring at the mooks, knocking out every single one with hilt-smacks and blade bashes and even the occasional stab with incredible speed. With every short whistle in between, the blade changed direction, knocking out yet another line of mooks where they stood.

_Wheeeeeuuuuuuwheetwheeetwheeeeeeeu-whe-whe-wheeeetwheet!_

And as quickly as it started, the sword was back by Jaune's side, waiting for further orders in midair as Junior took the chance to frantically look around at all his dazed men still standing...

Right before they all fell unconscious on cue.

...Even the teddy bear guy, who fell over the edge of the elevated turn table to the floor in the background of the club, too.

"Yang, dear. Do the honors?" Jaun-du noted, barely looking over his shoulder at the blonde brawler who only gazed at the club master with an evil grin.

Junior's eyes widened, dropping his weapon as he held out both hands at the blondes in placation, "N-No, wait-!"

_Wheeet-woo!_

But at Yang's wolf-whistle, the burly man was done for, Jaun-du's sword flying at him hilt-first at blinding speed... and completely obliterating his balls.

And with another trio of happy whistles, Jaun-du recalled the blade to his sheath, turning with his hand up at his temporary partner for a victory high-five.

"Well, I reckon they ain't got-"

"Y'know what?_ Screw the Ruby thing!_" Yang finally interrupted, leaping onto Jaun-du quicker than he could react to straddle him where he stood and send him staggering back on top of the bar counter where she eagerly leaned down to lock his lips with hers.

Up above, an increasingly-concerned Blake was trying to see into the club through the rooftop skylight that an increasingly-concerned Ren was trying to block... to protect the innocent _and_ the guilty.

"Ren, move aside. Was that the signal?"

Refusing to budge, the usually stoic student quickly shook his head with a rare shade of pink on his cheeks.

"N-N-No... uh... um..."

"Ren, we should check. Was it something good? Or something bad?"

"Uh... hmm... ummm, bit o' both?" he reasoned nervously as his gaze darted left and right, settling on that before looking up at the ravenette with what he was absolutely certain would score him the biggest favor Jaune would owe him in the history of _bro_-hood if it worked, "Y-Yeah, _bit o' both!_"

* * *

**A/N:** _Hehe, done. You can imagine the sword going **through** the mooks if you insist, just like in the movie. But you know, gotta keep it rated T and stuff..._

_Wait, GotG was PG-13... __**holy crap!**_

_Anywho, that's that. More to come soon! Check out my profile, visit my pairing poll, read some more TPS-inspired craziness, have at it! Till next time..._

**_And Happy Reading!_**

* * *

**_2-14-2016 UPDATE_**

**_WHAT THE FLYING CROW!?_**

_So ALL THAT FINALE was to pretty much pit All The Worlds Evils on Beacon while Ozpin was talking to Queen Daka of the Nightsister Clan since the first episode!?_

_Dang... that was... tantamount in several aspects to both TGG and LDR... okay, then. That was a thing._

_*takes deep breath, beginning to regain composure after just finishing finale*_

_This is good... this is a good thing. Evil has a face, underlings, and a convenient alternate dimension. Equally convenient is the end game... for a certain fic of mine, that makes its ending that much more... palatable. _

_Indeed, this off season will be prime for story-weaving the rest of these three mains of mine. Like I've always said, your support is appreciated!_

_TPS, signing out - for real this time..._

* * *

**_PS - TGG TURNS 20 WITH THIS CHAPTER_**

**_*puts on shades, adopts Johnny Bravo voice*_**

_E'rybody. Do the Monkey wit' me._

**_bootsandpantsandbootsandpantsandbootsandpantsandbootsandpantsand..._**

**_PPS - _**_That's right, say the above part out loud and fast. You've just started beatboxing._

* * *

_Happy 20th Chapter - and once again, thanks for reading my craziness! :D_

**_The Gamer Girl  
_**_TPS (c) 2016_


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